Parallel Lines
by faded harmony
Summary: In which Annabeth makes the biggest mistake in her life, and she only has three chances with fate and seven lives to fix it. All she has to do is follow the parallel lines that Leo has left for her. Not everyone can get their happy ending, and Annabeth is determined that no matter what, Leo will get his too. Oneshot. Leo/Piper with Annabeth basically telling the entire story.


**Title**: Parallel Lines

**Rating**: T (depressing, character death, some strange jokes haha)

**Disclaimer**: Rick Riordan owns PJO yo (I rhyme! :D)

**Pairing**: Leo/Piper (requested Leo/Annabeth but uh no) and Percy/Annabeth.

**Summary**: In which Annabeth makes the biggest mistake in her life, and she only has three chances with fate and seven lives to fix it. All she has to do is follow the parallel lines that Leo has left for her. Not everyone can get their happy ending, and Annabeth is determined that no matter what, Leo will get his too.

**A/N**- No, your eyes do not deceive you, this one shot is over 36,000 words. I do not lie. My hands hurt after writing this. Owie. :c  
Also, near the end I had some sort of weird funky problem with present and past tense, and I went back and tried to fix as many as I could but if you guys notice any more PLEASE TELL ME I want this to be as awesome as I can get it. Also the (_italics in parenthesis_) are in present tense because I wanted them like that. Sure. That sounds believable. :P I apologize for the confusing rules of time and paradoxes and alternate universes, I got a little too deep with that stuff. c:  
Side note: Who watches Doctor Who? I do I do I do! If you don't, you'll be confused why Annabeth thinks she's a timelord but whatever. I love that show aaaah.  
Song used: Don't Cry For Me by Whitney Houston. Any one else in a Leo/Piper mood? _Hahaha_. _No_. It's mostly depressing, just to warn you. I had a request for Leo/Annabeth (why) but it came out more Brotp!Leo/Annabeth and more Otp!Leo/Piper. Whoops. Sorry.(not really)

So enjoy the longest one shot you may ever find/read. (I hope you all appreciate what I go through for you guys D:) I will probably never write one as long as this ever again. Tada!

* * *

_**Parallel Lines**_

* * *

_Before_

* * *

For the third time since they had left the campsite, Annabeth told Leo to shut up.

The first two times had been out of pure annoyance. Ever since Jason went all teenage-boy-drama (usually it was the _girls_ that caused the problems) and broken up with Piper for the most irrelevant of reasons, Leo had been talking about her non-stop. Maybe it was because he (and Piper _and_ Annabeth _and_ Percy) got some urgent message from Olympus with _another _stupid_pointless_ quest they needed to complete. The entire trip Leo had been bugging Annabeth about Piper. He was well aware of Piper's breakup (and to be honest, Annabeth had noticed she wasn't too upset about it) and looking for every excuse to be with her.

"I mean come on," Leo tripped over a tree root as they stumbled through the forest. "We'd be so great together. We'd have amazingly wonderful sexy babies."

"I don't need to know about how many kids you plan on having," Annabeth growled with an irritated huff. "I really just don't care. Go talk to Percy about your lovesick guy problems."

"Uh, he's kinda back at camp."

"Oh, why thank you, I hadn't noticed! If he were here, I wouldn't be talking to you and telling you for the hundredth time to just _shut up_!"

"Sassy," Leo remarked. "And that was an exaggeration. It's only been the third or fourth time."

Annabeth cursed under her breath. Percy had been injured when they traveled through some magical mythical desert of danger by a two-headed snake. The two-headed snake had snuck up on them and tried to bite Piper, but Leo blasted it with fire. Then it got irritated and went for Annabeth, and Percy chopped off both heads...but not before it spat deadly venom on his chest. It burned through his skin and caused major irritation (such as heartburn and the fact the poison was killing him), but if they didn't find a cure from some old god of medicine [mental note: not Apollo] then...well Annabeth didn't want to find out. All she knew was that the snake's mythology had to deal with poisonous venom coming out of both heads, and it followed after dead or dying persons. Or demigods. It was most likely following them right now.

She shuddered at the thought. They were trying to find Asclepius (who believe it or not was actually like a mixture of Hermes and Apollo in one person- not a good combination in her own mind) so the god could heal Percy. Or at least have some sort of potion or herb or _something_. Annabeth would, of course, be going to find the god, and after _much _ insisting, Leo tagged along. Percy didn't want her to go alone, and the son of Hephaestus was persistent. At first, she had gone in alone, but Leo followed her to the middle of the forest and she had no choice but to consent for him to come along. Annabeth had been leaning on Piper coming with her, but Leo had refused. Stubborn idiot. He was going to get them all killed.

Annabeth pushed past a branch and stepped over the fallen trunk, but the branch snapped back and hit Leo in the face. He swore loudly in Spanglish (what she liked to call the expressions he used when he used both English and Spanish in the same sentence) and scared off some nearby crows.

The forest creeped her out more than she would like to admit. It was dark and unknown (which was scary enough, but she had a very bad experience with dark places- or falling through dark places) and the only thing keeping her walking was the hovering thought of Percy's physical state. They needed that cure.

Leo kept his hand alight. It kept off creatures from getting too close, but for some it seemed to draw them closer. A mountain lion perched itself on a high rock above them and seemed somewhat interested in the flaming spectacle of the boy next to her, debating which one of them would be tastier. Leo taunted it by making purring noises, only for Annabeth to elbow him in the gut. He tossed a ball of fire to ward it off and the beast prowled away. She had a bad feeling it would be coming back to eat them while their guard was down.

When they came to the edge of the forest, they came to a steep ledge. Annabeth looked around for a bridge or some sort of passageway across the gorge- that plunged into what seemed like endless darkness below- and her eyes stopped short. There, on the other side of the gorge lay another path up a hill, and smoke rising like tufts of grey feathers near the horizon.

"There," Annabeth pointed. "The temple of Asclepius."

Leo frowned and noticed the deep dark gorge below them and the unfortunate predicament of getting across."So how exactly do we get to _Ask la pies_?"

"_Asclepius_, Leo. And I don't know," Annabeth said. Leo peered over the side as if trying to estimate how far it went.

"We could climb down," Leo offered.

Annabeth shook. "N-no." She said. Her voice shook. "Too dangerous."

"But why-?" Leo turned to her and realized the pale terrified expression on the blonde girl's face. "Oh. Uhm. Right." He played with his hands awkwardly before dropping them into his pockets. "So how do you propose we get across- with preferably not landing in the deep dark scary pit of possible hell?"

"I was actually hoping you had a plan," Annabeth said.

"Me too," Leo muttered. "Can't we just like, drop a drachma and say a prayer to Zeus or something for the temporary gift of flight?"

"I wish Jason were here," Annabeth sighed. "He'd just fly us across."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Leo said thoughtfully. "I have a feeling it's a test. We might have to sacrifice something to get across."

The look they gave one another mirrored their hesitation and dismayed hope. Why would they have to sacrifice something? Annabeth and Percy had fallen to _Tartarus _ before, and Leo sacrificed countless hours of work to do so many things- also emotional things, like the sacrifice near the doors of death where Gaea had offered the return of his mother if he handed over Percy and Annabeth. Why should _they_- _champions of Olympus_- sacrifice anything more?

"This is gonna sound really bitter," Leo said with a frown. "But really, I mean, haven't we given up enough? Is there anything else we can give up?"

"Well, I could push you into the gorge," Annabeth said thoughtfully. "I'm thinking _Leo ala mode _ is looking mighty fine for sacrifices of the day. Because this entire walk he wouldn't just _freaking_ shut _up_."

"_Har har har_," Leo rolled his eyes humorlessly and played with the curls in his hair. "You're just _so _ hilarious."

"Unless _you_ have another plan of getting us across," Annabeth said. "Got a jetpack in your toolbelt?"

Leo stuffed his hand in and came out with a fork. "No, but my stomach is grumbling. You think _Asklapies_ has got any snacks?"

Annabeth didn't bother to correct him that time. She paced back and forth on the ledge and tried to gauge the distance of the cliff.

"Can we go back?" Leo asked. "There has to be another way around, right?"

"Yes," Annabeth said. "But if it's a test, like you said, the hill will keep getting farther away and we'll never reach it." and she gazed out at the sun. "And we don't have time. The water dryad warned us that the poison would kill him by sundown. We have to make it back in time or..."

"Yeah I know, I know!" Leo fisted his hands in his hair. "I'm listing off ideas, you come up with one!"

"You're probably right about the sacrifice part," Annabeth mused. "But what to sacrifice? I only brought my knife, but I doubt the gods would want the metal they already have..." She glanced at the toolbelt around Leo's waist.

He crossed his arms protectively around his waist. "Absolutely _not_. This is _my_ weapon, and if you're allowed to keep yours then I get to keep mine. Mine's _special_. It has _sentimental_ value."

"So does mine," Annabeth retorted.

"Can't we just say the magic word and the bridge appears?" Leo waved his arms at her. "_Abracadabra_! Zeus' underpants! Open sesame!"

"Leo, that's not going to-"

The rock beneath them suddenly shifted, and Annabeth teetered threateningly close to the edge. Leo (thankfully) grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her back towards the edge of the forest.

"What did you do!?" Annabeth yelled over the crashing of the rocks.

"I have no idea!" Leo yelled back. "I just said '_open sesame_!' and the whole thing just went- we can't- I don't-"

The ground stopped shaking. Dust clogged the air around them and they both coughed. It was hard to see at first, and Annabeth squinted over the gorge.

"Is that a-?" Leo left the question hanging.

Where there had been empty space before sat a long bridge, wide enough for one person to walk across at a time, the stone new looking and (suspiciously) not covered in dust.

"There's our way across," Annabeth said and stepped out, already walking towards the bridge. Leo followed hesitantly behind her.

A crow whistled softly above them as they crossed from an overhanging tree. It cawed once; twice; three times; and on the fourth gave a mournful cry. The cry of warning.

The cry of death.

* * *

"Dude," Leo gasped for air and leaned against the stone wall, taking yet _another_ break. "I really _hate _ stairs. At least in the battle of Greece, the Olympus there had an _elevator_."

"We're almost there," Annabeth urged. "We have to make it to Asclepius' temple and ask for help. He'll understand."

"You keep trying to convince yourself with that," Leo took a deep breath and started walking up the stairs again. He started muttering "Maybe while we're there we can ask for an escalator installation within our next visit- most likely in the next week when the next of us is dying of some highly deadly venom with no real cure."

Annabeth was getting irritated with his muttering. "Leo, for the last time, will you please just-!"

He clapped his hands over his mouth but gave a garbled "'_Shut up?_' I know, I know! I'm shutting up!"

Annabeth sighed with so much relief she almost smiled. "Wonderful."

They walked in silence up the rest of the stairs. When they were near the top, Leo finally spoke again. "Woah." He said in awe of the temple before them.

'Woah' was basically the best description of the temple. A roof made entirely coated in gold that seemed to glitter in the mid-afternoon sun. The walls were engraved with depictions of a few of the Greek myths- from here Annabeth could see Hercules, Perseus, Achilles, just to name a few. Near the arch there was a line of several pictures.

Annabeth was fairly certain she recognized the pictures, and Leo gaped at them. Then he said in an annoyed tone "My ears aren't that pointy! And why does Percy look asian?"

"That's Frank," Annabeth tittered.

"Oh. Awkward." Leo frowned and inspected the pictures. "You think I can take a picture of these and send them to Connor and Travis? They'll be jealous."

"Leo!"

"Ugh, fine. But I'm taking one on the way out."

The two traveled through the empty courtyard. It seemed eerily quiet, almost like ghostly music played in the background as they walked. When they found the entrance; a simple columned arch with a large bronze door with a tiny white sign over the top that said _THE DOCTOR IS IN_. Leo took the handle and knocked on the door. Annabeth would have liked to think something else out, but apparently his bluntness worked.

They both stepped back, but the door swung open almost instantaneously. An older looking guy, maybe late twenties or early thirties poked his head into the door. His hair was a very light blonde, practically bleached, and his eyes were almost the same color. They didn't twinkle with sunshine and happiness, however, and they were furrowed in an annoyed scowl. "How may I help you?"

"We're looking for Asclepius," Annabeth saved Leo from saying anything. He would have said the god's name wrong- or worse. Made a comment about the clothes he was wearing.

The guy looked like he had a tow with a Salvation Army basket. He wore a thick cloak of wool with lots of patches, a grey toga with yellow ties and a left boot on his right foot and a strapped sandal on the other. Leo made a coughing noise as he tried to refrain from snide comments. Annabeth elbowed him sharply in the gut, and he groaned instead.

"You've found him," the god said gruffly. "What do you two need from the god of medicine at this unfortunate time?"

Leo opened his mouth before Annabeth could warn him to shut up. "We need a cure," he said. "Our friend was, uhm, fatally injured by some two-headed venom-spitting snake in the desert. We were told you could help us."

"Help," the god muttered. "Yes, that's _all _ I do. _Help_ people." He looked at the two expectantly. "What can you do in return?"

Leo looked like he was about to reply with '_anything_', but he learned his lesson from the past. He'd paid the price with Thanatos, an exchange to slip into Tartarus and save Percy and Annabeth from their encasement. The price had been Hazel, Frank, and his own soul, which they had no bargain for. Thankfully, Hades had stepped in and ordered them to be released. Thanatos hadn't been the most pleased with that, but in recompence he was given a promotion from Olympus- now instead of '_god of the travelling souls_' he was '_co-god of the dead_.' Annabeth was never sure if she would be able to understand the minds of the gods. They were all a little egotistical and selfish, but also slow and as ambitious as humans. What did a promotion have to do with anything?

"We'll work something out," Annabeth promised. "May we come in inside?" With the god's hesitant look, she added "Please?"

The god of medicine didn't look happy about it, but he relented at Annabeth's pleading look and opened the door wider.

He had the sternest look on his face when he allowed them inside. The walls of the temple looked more like a cottage of a Western house in the 1800's. Black and white portraits of herbs covered the walls and orbs of light hung from the ceiling. Cabinets upon cabinets were faced each other stacked with bottles and books and all sorts of knick-knacks the god had probably acquired over the centuries. Leo tried to touch one of the cabinets leaning against the wall, but the god of medicine ushered them into another room. "Do not touch anything," the god ordered sternly. "They should not be disturbed by mortals."

The room was light and happy, light streaming in from all the windows, which didn't suit the miserable face of the god in front of them. Piles of books lined the walls like a miniature library, and bottles of bubbling and various colored potions filled every shelf in the room. A large pot sat with a box of yellow and black candles all around the shelves, and the white curtains were drawn over the windows.

Leo blinked. "Is that a frog?" He pointed to a gross slimy looking jar with shades of green and mush all inside.

"Probably," The god barely passed a glance at him or the jar. He was looking at Annabeth like she was a rare exotic flower he was about to toss in his pot and turn into another one of his potions. It wasn't a helpful comparison.

Annabeth fought the urge to look away. "My boyfriend has been poisoned with the venom of a two-headed snake," she said as calmly as she could. "A water nymph told us to search the valley for your temple. She said you were a helpful god." _Helpful god_, not _the most helpful god_.

Leo was playing with one of the physics marvels in the room. He tapped his fingers against one of the edges, and the whole thing spun in a dizzying circular motion. He seemed hypnotized by it, and the god glanced over and tapped the top so it stopped. Leo turned in a circle and collapsed into a chair next to him. He blinked a few times and asked groggily "Mama, is it morning already?"

"He'll be fine," the god assured her at her concerned look. "I said not to touch anything."

Leo pressed his hands to his head as if he had a headache. "Oh gods, I don't think I want to anymore."

"About the potion," Annabeth cleared her throat. "You said you might have something to help us. Do you know how to cure Percy?"

Asclepius was transfixed with something above her head that wasn't there. "Percy," he mused. "Percy Jackson?"

"Yes," she answered after a moment of hesitation.

"Ah. That would make sense," the god said. "You would be Annabeth Chase, I assume."

"And I'm Leo Valdez!" Leo stood up, struck a pose, and gestured to himself.

Asclepius looked at him with indifference. "I have heard of you, I believe. Son of Hephaestus?"

"Yessir."

"The last fire-user of the century?"

Leo shifted uncomfortably and sat back down in the chair. "Um...yeah. That too."

He drew something from his pocket, like a packet, and tossed it to Leo. "You might need this soon," he said. Leo looked at the tiny bag and then back at Asclepius.

"This says '_fireproof sun-screen._'"

"I'm well aware," the god said idly.

"But I'm a fire user. I can already protect myself from fire-?"

The god seemed as fickle as any other immortal and was moving his conversation quickly. "Two headed snake with poison, you said?" Then lifted up, took out a large and relatively thick book from a higher shelf and dropped it with a loud BANG! on a desk in front of them, causing the two nervous demigods to jump. He took a huge breath and blew off the dust, causing Leo to cough and Annabeth to spit and wave the dust away.

He flipped open a few pages. "'_Amphisbaena_. _Two headed snake with powerful range and deadly spitting venom. Chases after dead corpses. Perfect defense against a zombie apocalypse,'_" he said and slammed the book shut.

"That's good to know," Leo muttered. "You know, incase we ever need a venom-spitting snake to protect us from the _zombies_."

Annabeth shot him a dark glare and he turned his grumbling into an innocent whistle.

The god of medicine scrolled through his chests of potions until he found a blood-red colored one that fizzled and sparked with what looked like firecrackers every second. The cork stopper kept any of it from falling out, but Annabeth didn't want to know what would happen if she opened it. It looked like explosion in a bottle. A very dangerous, harmful explosive in a glass bottle.

"Here's your cure," the god announced and held it out to Annabeth. "This potion cures almost all ailments such as poison, burns, bleeding wounds, and even the grasp of death. When he takes this," he god tapped the bottle. "He must drink all of it. It will mend all the damage inflicted on his body, but it will cause him great pain until he finishes it. If one drop remains, he will die within minutes."

Woah. Okay. Very dangerous and powerful potion, Annabeth already figured that. She tried to reach for it, but he cast his hand away. "Ah, ah, ah, not so fast," he spun it behind him and extended his other empty hand. "About that favor..."

"What do you have in mind?" Annabeth asked. "We're already on a quest for Olympus, we could fetch some herbs from you, or tell off a pestering immortal enemy..."

"Actually," the god said. "I was wondering if you could do me this one little favor.." He paused for a minute. For a minute his form flickered, and his hippie-hobo outfit turned into something else that looked like it had dragged itself through a gypsy caravan and pulled out a turban. Leo tried to keep his snicker in but failed, and Annabeth kicked his shin. He yelped in pain.

"Apollo is always taking the glory for being the god of medicine," Asclepius complained. "I was the _first_ god to discover the craft of using natural medicine to cure illness. I trained Apollo for many years and how does he repay me? He takes his seat on Olympus while I am left for the simple housekeeping care of the mortals. There is no glory for me. But I am not a jealous god, and I do not wish ill-will on my former student." He frowned at his choice of words. "Actually, since I'm the god of healing I doubt I _ever_ wish illness on others..."

Annabeth coughed as a reminder to keep talking. "What? Oh. Right. Apollo. Well, Apollo is also the god of prophecy and future, and as my guests, would you like to participate with a free-trial of palm-reading and scrying? With your purchase of the potion of course. Just a small favor to test my skills. No charge on you, just a favor for a god."

She should have said no. She should have thanked the god and said instead to take flyers and spread the news of his oracle business on Olympus, or a spot for his own artwork on Olympus. She should have walked away with the potion and left it at that.

"Okay," she relented at the pleading look the god was giving her. Leo was rubbing his leg tenderly where she had kneed him and shot her a dark glare from the corner of her eye. "Sure, we'd love a free palm-reading."

* * *

Leo was very generous in his offer to let her go first. He shoved her into the client chair (maybe this was payback for all the physical harm she inflicted on him earlier) and stood outside. Asclepius insisted each reading was private. (As private as it could be behind a screen door with no sound barrier _whatsoever_.)

"Give me your hand," the god instructed and Annabeth did as she was told. She extended her hand to him with the palm facing out, and he grasped it firmly and closed his eyes. He traced his fingers over the lines on her hands to her wrist.

"Uncertainty," he traced her life line. "But a happy beginning is certainly a possibility," Asclepius continued the reading by placed his hand over hers. "The number seven and three will remain important to you. Much of the rest of your life will be reminded of these two numbers."

Annabeth nodded. "Anything else?"

"Yes," he said. "Don't let logic rule your heart."

_What total rubbish,_ she thought. _This sounds like a scam, At least I get it for free_. But a silent part of her peeped up to say; _but he's a god, don't take what they say for granted. He could be right._

Then he pulled out a glass ball and set it on the table in a fold and waved his hands around it. "What do you wish to see?"

"The door," Annabeth muttered. "It doesn't matter, I'm perfectly fine letting my life be filled with surprises."

He waved his hands dramatically around the ball and the glass became filled with smoke. The smoke billowed to the edges and began to swirl.

Annabeth had her head placed on her chin and mostly watched with disinterest, until she saw some things in the glass that intrigued her. Her hand dropped to her side as she brought her eyes closer to the glass and squinted, not believing what she was seeing.

As she watched, she saw the misty images of her and Percy walking down the street, which then faded and morphed another image of her wearing all white and beaming as she walked down a long aisle with many friends...

And then they sped up, she saw herself standing and smiling while Percy picked up a tiny girl with long black pigtails and grey eyes...

But, the last one she saw before it all faded was an image of herself sitting in the middle of a forest, her head lifted to the sky and tears on the sides of her cheeks.

Asclepius waved his head over the glass and the images disappeared.

"Thank you for your time," the god of medicine said. "It was a pleasure meeting you. You can send in your friend now."

Annabeth stood up and pushed in her chair, and walked out to tell Leo to go. He wasn't expecting her, and when she opened the door he scurried away from the wall and tried to pretend he wasn't listening.

"Heh," Leo scratched the back of his neck as she glared at him. "So, uh, can we go now?"

"Nope, it's your turn." Annabeth shoved him in the door and took a few steps back.

Leo sat down, from the sound he was making by scraping the chair back. "So, uh, what are we doing?"

"I will show you the crystal ball first," Asclepius said mysteriously. "Do you wish to see your future?"

She heard Leo snort. "Yeah, okay."

Annabeth shouldn't have been eavesdropping, but it was hard to listen to anything else in the silent house except for their talking.

"What do you see?" Asclepius asked Leo.

She could almost hear Leo's frown. "I see...fog. Lots and lots of fog. Is it going to rain tomorrow?"

"No," the god said. "It should be more than just fog."

"Well, I see...a tornado of fog. Does that mean I'm going to get sucked off to the land of Oz?"

"Maybe it's not working," Asclepius must have moved something, and she heard the click of a switch. (Fake crystal ball?) "Is it working now?"

"Uhm...well now I see bigger clouds. There's still lots of fog."

"It might just not be working," the god of medicine said reassuringly. "Let's try the palm reading then."

Annabeth's ear was now pressed against the wall. Whoops. She was eavesdropping now.

"Uhm...okay?" Leo must have given the god his hand, because she heard Asclepius muttering.

"Hm...you have the most concerning line of fate I've ever seen."

"Concerning?" Leo sounded panicked. "Like, something to be concerned about? As in, I'm going to die very possibly soon?"

"I wouldn't say that, it looks almost as if there's a parallel line...Always remember the parallel lines..."

There was a crash, and she heard Leo swear. Something hooted from inside the room. "Gods damned owl! Ow! It bit my finger!"

"That's a bad omen," Asclepius said in a horrified whisper. "Seeing an owl in broad daylight usually means..."

"Hey! Annabeth!" Leo shouted from inside. "Tell your mother's holy animal to _stop attacking me_!"

The owl [or whatever it was] flew away and hooted loudly, and Annabeth peeked her head in. The owl was flapping around the room and still hooting at Leo with an irritated coo. Then it flew out the window.

"Stupid bird," Leo muttered. Then he said something in Spanglish that Annabeth didn't catch, but she had a feeling it wasn't a compliment towards birds.

Asclepius stood up. "I'm afraid you'll have to go," the god said.

Leo stopped cursing and both of them looked at him. "Um, okay..." Leo said, his eyebrows raised. "So...do we take the potion or-"

"No!" the god said louder than he probably met. He looked distracted, even worried. "The deal is off. I have another urgent matter to attend to. You will have to leave now."

"But-" Annabeth protested. Didn't he understand they needed that miracle potion or Percy would die?

The god snapped his fingers, and suddenly in a gust of wind they were kicked out the door, and it slammed behind them. The tiny sign over the door turned over with the force of the door and now read _THE DOCTOR IS OUT_.

Leo put his hands up in the air and huffed "How rude!"

Annabeth kicked the ground in irritation. "What are we going to do?"

"Head back, I guess," Leo said. "Come on, I still need to take that picture of that arch."

He headed back for the steps, and Annabeth followed him.

* * *

A few levels down, Leo suddenly stopped. "Crap," he said, putting his hands at his waist. "I forgot my tool belt."

"You what?" Annabeth stopped. "How could you have lost your-?"

"My toolbelt!" Leo exclaimed. "Of all things, gods-!"

"Then go get it!" Annabeth ordered, pointing back up the staircase. "I'm not walking back up these stairs."

"Stay here," Leo said and ran back up to retrieve his toolbelt.

Annabeth sat down on a stair and looked down at the jungle below them. They would have to return soon, without a potion, and no help...  
She hated to consider the possibility, but it looked liked Percy wasn't going to make it.

The sun was only half-setting, still high, but it would take a while to trek through the forest again and somehow find a solution to heal Percy. She wondered if tossing him in a river would heal him, but she doubted it.

A few minutes later, Leo came trotting down, grinning and his tool belt strapped around his waist. "So," he said, grinning. "Did I miss anything?"

"Did you get your toolbelt?" Annabeth sighed.

"Yep," Leo was still grinning madly. "I also...kinda retrieved something else." He pulled his hands into his tool belt and took out the red-bottled potion with the bubbling surface.

Annabeth stared at it. "Leo!" She exclaimed. "How did you get that?"

"Well," Leo said, making his voice low and dramatic. "I climbed up the _perilous_ stairs of exhaustion, and then under the arch of _awesomeness_- I got a picture, by the way- and then went up to the side of the house, climbed up the wall of _desperation_ and _hopelessness_, and..." He paused just to add dramatic effect. "...then I crawled through the window and took it."

Annabeth glared at him. She should probably scold him. Somehow she figured out his plan; he'd left his toolbelt up at the top so he could go '_retrieve it_', but actually just get the potion from Asclepius without her knowing. Clever plan, she thought grudgingly.

She took a breath to start scolding, but instead ran and hugged him. He seemed surprised, probably because he had been expecting a scolding, so he awkwardly patted her head. "Uhm," he said. "Okay."

Annabeth took the potion from his hands and inspected it. "This is the right one, right?"

"Yep. If it's not, then I guess he's gonna die anyways."

"Leo!"

He grinned. "Come on, Annie. We gotta go save your boyfriend."

Annabeth handed the potion back to him with a look like '_keep this safe in your belt_' and he dropped it in. "Yeah, let's get back," she agreed, and she couldn't help but smile and add "And I won't tell your girlfriend that we hugged."

Leo flushed and growled "I swear we're going to kill each other some day."

Annabeth laughed half-heartedly. "Not today, Valdez, none of us are going to die today. Not today."

* * *

When they came to the base of the mountain, Annabeth looked back up at the temple. The shining golden building had vanished off the top, which she could only wonder if the god would be returning soon and be displeased about their thievery.

"Don't worry about it," Leo saw her watching the temple. "He probably won't be back for a while. Plus I dropped a few drachmas and a note of apology."

"What'd it say?"

Leo smirked, as if the contents had amused him. "I wrote '_Sorry, but we kinda need this. Thanks for the palm readings though.'_"

"You did _not_."

"I most certainly did," Leo ducked under a low-lying branch. "I also wrote '_hashtag yolo swag_' at the bottom for emphasis as our excuse."

"Leo-" Annabeth breathed out heavily in exasperation. "What am I going to do with you?"

He only grinned at her as they kept walking.

A little while later, at the bridge, Leo pointed out something. "Hey, is it just me, or is the bridge look like it's fading?"

Annabeth narrowed her eyes. Leo was right; if she looked closely, it looked like the bridge was fading in and out of the light.

"We better hurry then," Annabeth said. She kicked off from the start and bolted across the bridge, Leo right behind her.

The ground shook, and Annabeth didn't dare look behind her. It felt like the entire bridge was falling apart, but she kept running.

On the last step, she jumped and skidded a few feet on the stone. Leo jumped with her, but the entire bridge vanished and he missed the stone. "Woah-!" He yelled, and Annabeth scrambled for his hand.

He slid further down the edge, pulling Annabeth with him. She clung to the sides, laying on her stomach and trying to pull him up. Leo hung desperately under her, looking down at the dark canyon below, and he gave her a scared smile. "This looks familiar, yes?"

"Don't even think about it," Annabeth growled. "No one is falling in this time."

She hefted herself up by the elbows and sat on her knees, slowly inching away from the edge. Leo's hands were sweaty, and his nails were uncomfortably digging into the inside of her palms and the back of her knuckles. He didn't want to let go, and neither did Annabeth.

Annabeth finally managed to tug Leo out of the canyon, and the both of them just sat on their stomachs or on their backs and took deep breaths.

Leo finally groaned and rolled over. "We've been making too many close calls today," he wheezed.

"Well, at least none of us have died yet," Annabeth said, always the superior optimist. She untucked her legs and stood up. "Come on, Valdez, we still got a forest to get through."

"Don't remind me," Leo moaned as he stood up. "So much _walking_."

"Oh yes," Annabeth rolled her eyes as he took a march into the entrance of the forest. "The _Great Leo Valdez_, defeated by his quest because he didn't want to _freaking_ walk."

"Oh, shut up, Chase."

* * *

Leo's hand was on fire to keep them moving, and the jungle gotn ominously darker as they walked under the shade. The canopy seemed to entirely block out the sun, and Annabeth had to keep reminding herself that the edges of trees were not the folds of Tartarus, and the shadows weren't going to jump out and grab her.

"Hey," Leo asked as he stepped over a large divot in the ground that could have been a tiny crater. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Annabeth swallowed. "I'm just...not very comfortable in the dark anymore."

Leo nodded. "Neither am I." He held up his alighted hand like a blazing _STOP_ sign. "Sometimes I'm actually very thankful for this."

"Not always," Annabeth said pointedly.

They looked at each other for a moment until Leo looked away, coughed, and kept walking. Annabeth followed after them, still silent, but now was somewhat wishing Leo would talk. It would comfort her that she wasn't down-

"I still think me and Piper should be together," Leo tossed aside some hanging vines with his free hand. "Although I think I need a blessing."

Annabeth was grateful for the shift in conversation. "From who?"

"Hm," he mused. "Probably you. If you can steal Piper's food and get away with it, you must have high value."

"Gee, I'm glad that you think her food means so much to me."

"Yep."

"Doesn't that give high value to yourself? I always see you stealing her food, and I'm pretty sure I've seen Piper steal some of your broccoli pizza." Annabeth said suggestively.

The tips of Leo's ears turned red, but he sputtered "I knew she stole my pizza, and she always denied it!"

Annabeth managed to laugh for real. "You two have the strangest friendship."

"Bros for life, I keep telling you," Leo chucked a random fireball across the forest as a new game he had invented to entertain himself.

"That's a platonic relationship, not romantic." Annabeth pointed out. "Would you want to risk your friendship with Piper to just be more than that?"

"Oh please, we've _always _ been more than just platonic," Leo boasted. "And if I remember right, weren't you and Percy just '_platonic friends_' before...you know."

Annabeth felt her cheeks go pink for no reason. "That's different."

"Oh, is it really? Do I have to get kidnapped for eight months just so I can prove it?"

"How about you don't," Annabeth suggested. "And what makes you think you actually like Piper that way?"

"I don't _like_ her," Leo said honestly. "I _love_ her."

"Please, this is just like with Thalia or anyone girl you think you've '_loved_.'"

"No," Leo insisted. He waved his arms around as he walked behind her. "I actually care about Piper. She's always been my best friend and I care when she gets hurt, or when she broke up with Jason I came over with tissues and lots of stupid comedies and a full bag of corny jokes..." He zoned out in his thoughts.

"Anything else?" Annabeth urged.

"Well...I like the way she smiles, and her laugh makes my stomach feel like I've swallowed a basket of jumping beans..." Leo stopped. "You're laughing at me."

Annabeth was giggling. "Nope, what are you talking about?" She laughed louder.

"You're so not helping the situation," Leo complained and threw his hands up in the air with annoyance.

"I think you're right," Annabeth said between laughs. "I think you've really fallen in love with Piper."

"Then _why _ are you laughing at me?"

Annabeth opened her mouth to explain why, still laughing. "Because-"

Before she could tell Leo why she found the whole thing so funny, something (or somethings) came barreling past them in the forest. Annabeth whipped out her knife, and Leo lit his other hand on fire, awaiting an attack.

Thousands of tiny forest animals and birds came frantically running in their direction, rabbits hopping over everything and deer prancing with urgent haste to escape whatever they were running from. Birds scattered and took to the skies like flushed quail and their squawks were alarmed and fearful.

Within a few minutes, they were all gone. The trees had gone silent from the birds chirping from earlier, and the only thing that remained were two confused demigods.

Leo walked in a circle, surveying the surroundings. "What the Hades?"

They both jumped when they heard the crack of wood, weapons raised and hands alight towards the intruder.

A slow turtle had tried to catch up to his friends, and waddled with determination after his friends. Then it sped up it's pace and disappeared out of the the forest.

Annabeth looked around, looking for any signs of intrusion. "Don't make a sound," she warned Leo in a whisper.

He nodded, crouching low to the ground as Annabeth made her way silently to the other side.

Something crashed in the forest from a short distance away. There was the sound of growls and roaring, but it definitely didn't sound like the lion from earlier. Annabeth locked eyes with Leo, and he looked like he was thinking the same thing.

Annabeth looked around at the trees. If they could climb up one, maybe they could avoid a fight. But, there was the problem of being spotted, or not being able to climb up the tree in time. Also, if that sound had been a tree crashing, she doubted they were safe above or on the ground.

Leo gave her a look and a gesture like '_run now_?'

She shook her head and mouthed '_wait_.'

A moment later, another crash sounded. _Whatever_ it was had gotten closer.

Leo started to rise, but Annabeth waved her hand like '_stay down_.'

A tree in their line of sight crashed to the floor with a clap of thunder.

That was her new signal and last minute decision. They had waited too long. "Run," Annabeth said. "_Run_!"

Leo kicked off on his heels and Annabeth dashed after him.

More trees collapsed behind them, and a galloping sound could be heard behind them. Leo was panting, and racing over logs and rocks, Annabeth at his side and neither of them wanted to turn around and be distracted.

Leo blasted fire behind him as if to ward off the monster chasing them, but instead several bellows echoed behind them. Apparently it didn't mind fire, or it was just irritated by it. The thundering sound of hooves and claws carried through the quiet forest.

Her ankle twisted weird when Leo turned sharply, but when she stepped back on the ankle it twisted back around. She cursed, but kept running. That ankle had always been weaker, ever since she'd gotten it ensnared in Arachne's web...

Leo shouted something to her, but she couldn't hear it. Then he shoved into her, pushing her into a tree. A large gust of fire filled the air around them, and she coughed from the smoke. Leo pushed her out, and she crawled close to the ground until she could breathe again. She stood up, and Leo was standing to her back with his palms filled with fire and his right hand gripping a large mallet.

Her knife brandished in the smoke, the light of the fire catching at an angle. Her and Leo stepped in circles, their weapons out and prepared.

She saw the shadows move, and narrowed her eyes towards the shapes.

A loud bellow almost knocked her backwards, and the shadows rose out of the fire.

There were four of them, all tall and horse-like. The closest one was an orange red color, his coat almost invisible in the fire. It had tall legs meant for speed, light hooves for being faster than others. He was slightly smaller than the others, but they were still larger than a hybrid car. The hooves were snared at the edges as if made for tearing through things (and she swallowed at the thought if it was made for tearing through demigod flesh.)

The second one was taller, but it's coat was pure white and shone like a star in the sun. It's coat was tinged with flames, as if the horse was on fire itself. A bronze chain was wrapped around it's neck, but the leash looked broken off, like it had somehow escaped from it's encasement.

The tallest one sat near the back, with a gold coat that glistened like real metal. It probably was real metal, and it looked as strong and powerful.

The most disturbing out of the group was the fourth one, sitting near the edge, licking it's lips. It's coat was as dark as a twilight sky, the eyes the most hungry and maddened than the rest. It set it's eyes on the two of them like they were their next meal, and when it snorted, smoke and tiny fires came from it's nose. It had two antlers seated on the top of it's head, pointed out for goring and killing. She could almost smell the blood of other demigods who had died and been eaten by the hands of the horses.

The four of them all had something in common; the mad look in the horse's eyes, bright red and glaring with ravaging starvation for demigod...

"Uh," Leo swallowed and whispered to her. "What the Hades are those?"

Mares of Diomedes, Annabeth had read about them before. They had been cursed and gone crazy, eating people around them. Hercules had been sent to restrain them, and he had chained them to an island. Apparently the island didn't exist anymore, because ...

"The Mares of Diomedes," Annabeth said in awe and fear. "They were cursed to go mad, and they crave..."

"Us," Leo finished. "Great."

"They also breathe fire," Annabeth added.

"No problem." Leo swung his hammer. "I'm gonna get the one on fire. What's he called?"

"Xanthos, I think."

"Okay," and Leo blasted hands out of his hands and feet and smacked the horse near the head. Annabeth wished Percy was with them, he could have convinced the horses not to eat them, or summoned a wave to put out their fire, but all she had was her small short-range dagger and a fire-proof companion. No plans could come to mind.

She glanced at a drooping tree. The end of it looked like it had been struck by lightning, and if she could just apply enough force she could drop it on a few of them...

The black one, which she guessed was Deimos, nicknamed 'the terrible' was sniffing her out. From legend, Hercules had killed their owner and fed his flesh to the mares, but they had turned against Hercules so he strangled each of them. Deimos was the strongest and the most driven, so Hercules had ripped out his eyes, but the horse could still smell...

Annabeth flexed her hands, and ran for the tree.

Leo was distracted the mares pretty well, throwing fire back at them and swallowing the hot exhaust with his hands when they spewed fire. Xanthos, the gold metal one, was confused and trying to stomp on Leo, but he always jumped out of the way. She watched fearfully at the close calls he made, but she didn't have time to step in and be a hero.

The faster one was racing around in circles, causing little trails of fire where it landed. Leo tossed things at it, ranging from spoons to tiny hammers, which irritated the animals.

Leo caught the fiery mare by the mane, and it whinnied in surprise. He jumped on it's back, waving his hand in the air like a cowboy and forcing it to ride around, while chasing after the other horses.

Annabeth reached the tree, put her hands on the sides and shoved herself against it. The tree groaned, and shook to the top branch, but wouldn't break.

Something made huffing noises behind her. Annabeth turned very slowly, until she saw Deimos sniffing for her in the air. It's eyes were gouged out, with bloody trails down the sides of it's face, and it made a whinny that sounded like a roar.

It stamped the ground like a bull about to charge, and took off towards her. She watched the horse coming at her, and it's head bowed with the horns straight for her.

Annabeth jumped at the last second, over the top of it's head and her hands trailing over the horse. It's mane had caught fire, and her hands blistered with pain when she swept past it. She landed on her feet, in a clumsy crouch, and turned around, mostly unharmed.

The mare had not been as fortunate, and had charged straight into the back of the tree. It shook it's head, and took a few stumbling steps in another direction and then collapsed.

"Leo!" Annabeth shouted. "Watch out!"

She saw the flaming Valdez jump off his horse, just in time for the tall tree to fall and land with a heavy _BOOM! _ that rung all through the jungle.

There were some frantic whinnies, and the tree shifted again, and something exploded into golden powder. The gold metallic horse and the fiery mare Leo had been riding were gone.

"Nice!" Leo shouted, jumping over the fallen tree. "But why did you have to kill my ride?"

"Sorry," Annabeth apologized, although she wasn't very sorry. "Where'd the other one go?"

A bush nearby rustled and burst into flames.

"Damn horse," Leo grumbled and shuffled through his tool belt for another hammer. "I tossed so many hammers at it, and it just spat fire in my face without even letting me see it. How rude!"

"Rude indeed," Annabeth agreed, trying to fold her fingers over her dagger. It felt uncomfortable and scratchy in her hands, and she couldn't grasp the handle just right.

Leo saw her wincing, and looked alarmed. "What's wrong?"

"Burned my hands," Annabeth grimaced. "I tried to do jump over the scary looking one."

Leo looked away, his eyes narrowed and concentrated. "Where is that dang horse...?"

A strong breeze filled the air, and a trail of fire followed it. Leo swung his hammer blindly, not coming in contact with anything.

"Be careful," Annabeth warned. "He's fast, and he'll snatch you up if you're not-"

Sharp needles pierced her shoulder, ripping her away from Leo and she screamed. Red covered her vision in painful spots, and she felt like her shoulder was being pulled from the rest of her body. Her dagger was still in her hands, and she tried to stab the horse, but the dagger slid from her puffy fingers and out of sight.

Someone grabbed her wrist and tore her away, and that only hurt more. Leo tossed her against the back of a tree, and the horse came to a halt.

"Wait," Annabeth coughed. "It's about to-"

Leo's eyes were wide with panic and adrenaline, and his was trying to grab something out of his toolbelt. The potion. He was going to use it on her. The one they had gotten to save Percy.

"No-" Annabeth tried to say, but his eyes were wide with panic and adrenaline. He tackled her out of the way, and landed hard on the ground. Something slimy and wet burst and covered Annabeth from head to toe, and it smelled like rotten eggs and ashes.

There was a calming warm feeling over the rest of her, which she tried to convince herself wasn't her mind going unconscious or the blood from the shoulder where she'd been bitten. Annabeth slowly became aware that there were a pair of arms wrapped around her, and she whispered in a daze "Percy?"

"Nope, guess again." She opened her eyes and saw Leo was grinning. "Although I see why Percy likes hugging you, your hair smells nice."

"What the heck-?" She looked around and gasped. She was in the middle of a fire. Flames danced around her, burning everything they touched all around. When a flame licked against her shoulder, it simply folded over it and she felt no pain.

"How-?" Annabeth looked questioningly up at Leo. He was smirking, probably teasing her and making fun of how Percy liked the smell of her hair.

"The fire-proof sunscreen that hippie healer gave me." Leo explained. "I think he was right about me needing it. Or, I guess you needing it."

"What is going on?" Annabeth tried to raise her head. Leo adjusted her shoulder, taking out a strip of long white cloth from his tool belt and wrapping it around her arm in the awkward position they were in.

"Well," Leo told her as he wrapped her arm. "Right now Speedy is trying to cook us by continuously breathing fire on us. He likes his food well done."

Annabeth slapped his chest. "That's not funny."

"No, I'm serious. He's trying to barbeque us." He glanced up at the haze where the horse was probably spitting fire. "Unfortunately, neither of us are capable of burning right now."

The smoke billowed above the canopy and into the sky, while Annabeth searched for the sun. "How long until-?"

She didn't have to wait long before the flames stopped growing and the snarling face of the remaining mare was trying to eat Leo's face.

Annabeth didn't have to think when she pushed her legs up and kicked her and Leo apart. Leo slid across the floor, and she went in the other direction. The horse snapped up on empty air, and glanced curiously at the two of them like '_why aren't you delicious smoking barbeque?'_

Leo jumped up and pushed the horse over (which reminded Annabeth for some reason like cow-tipping) and Annabeth patted her hands for her belt and the ground for her knife. It was miraculously sitting under her leg, so she grabbed it and threw it towards the horse.

The mare was trying to unseat itself and stand back up to snap at Leo, but the knife flew past it's neck and the head rolled off. The mare collapsed in a rainfall of golden sparkles, and Leo stood there with a poker face and looked around.

"That could have gone better," he commented as he helped Annabeth up with her good arm.

"It definitely could've," Annabeth nodded in agreement. She picked up her knife, wiped off the blood, and tucked it in her belt.

Leo was surveying the damage. "So, which way is the campsite?"

"Good question." Annabeth looked to the sky. "The sun is setting west, and we came from the east, so that way." She pointed towards the other end of the forest. "We'll eventually reach the fields."

"Excellent," Leo said. He rummaged through his tool belt, and took out the potion and inspected it. "Hasn't exploded yet. Good thing I kept it in here for safekeeping."

"Yeah, now put it back." Annabeth ordered. "We don't need you dropping it and causing the entire forest to turn into a nuclear wasteland."

"That wouldn't happen," Leo scoffed, but he put it back inside anyways. "Let's march, Colonel Chase." He winked and saluted at her.

Annabeth trudged forward, punching his shoulder lightly and walked towards the field where they were camped.

"Back to our earlier conversation," Leo started talking again. Annabeth groaned "Oh my gods, just _shut up _ already."

But Leo just smiled. "I think Piper would be impressed by my heroics, don't you think?"

"I don't know about Piper," Annabeth said. "Annabeth was pretty impressed too."

Leo stopped walking. "Really?"

"Yeah. You saved my life out there."

He looked at his shoes. "You saved me at the bridge."

"Well, I would have had to do that anyways. You did something brave, Valdez."

"You too, Chase." He kept walking. Annabeth slowly started moving again, and a strange silence of gratitude followed.

When the trees started thinning out, Leo turned around. "Do you think-" he started to ask her. He looked at her, but his gaze drifted quickly to something behind her.

Time seemed to freeze in that moment. One moment Leo was running towards her, and she turned around.

The black mare that she had caused to headbutt a tree from earlier had returned, it's eyes gone but still filled with murderous intent. The mane and the tail were practically flaming with anger, it's head in a full charge and the two horns on top with the black crystal had cracked halfway with uneven splits and sharp cuts.

Annabeth was too slow. By the time she had turned around and seen the mare, it was too late. The black nightmare horse was charging too fast, her hands couldn't reach her dagger, and everything seemed stuck in slow motion.

So she closed her eyes and prepared for pain and eventual death.

In that moment of her relaxation, and her dismissal to her life, time sped up again. Someone ripped her away by the arm on her bad shoulder, and she cried out in pain. Annabeth was pushed to the side, falling and tripping. The mare raced past her, leaving a large trail of fire in it's path. She landed on the flames, but the sunscreen must not have worn off because she didn't catch fire.

Annabeth was on her feet and chasing after the mare, leaping after it just in time to see it pick up Leo, and toss him into a tree.

He landed on his back, still standing and his eyes blazing. His arm was caught on the edge- now that Annabeth looked, the horse seemed to have shot a black spear into the cuff of his jacket, and stomped it's foot with rage.

She screamed. She yelled at the top of her lungs, and her feet tore across the distance after him. Leo tugged helplessly at his shirt, and the mare picked up it's feet and ran.

Annabeth was still running when the mare made it to Leo, and all the gods in the world couldn't have stopped her when she saw the horns tear through his chest, and he slid down the tree.

The mare blasted fire in his face, and it's teeth shone like silver moonlit daggers. Deimos, the mare of death, while Leo looked at it with a blank face and two horns in his stomach. It's jaws opened on his neck, _to kill him, eat him_-

Annabeth's legs were burning when she jumped, off the mare's back and her opposite foot hit the trunk of the tree, and she flipped over as she sailed down with her dagger in her hands and forced down.

Before Deimos could eat her friend, Annabeth Chase in all her glory came down on it's head and stabbed the beast right between the two bloody empty eyes. The dagger twisted in her hands by her own force, and cracked something inside the mare. It reared and collapsed, Annabeth's dagger still in it's head, and with a roar like an avalanche and one last explosion of fire came from it's mouth and reared, before dissolving into a gold powder in her hands.

Her shoulder was crying out in pain, but for the meantime she ignored it. When she had released her grip on the dagger she had landed wrong on her shoulder, which now felt like it was being continuously pounded by a fiery whip. Annabeth groaned when she got up, reached over for her dagger and strapped it back to her belt.

She crawled across the floor to Leo, who was still sitting upright against the tree. As she got closer she got to see the alarming pool of blood that was streaming from his chest and his stomach.

When she was close enough, he moistened his lips and said in a quiet whisper; "Well that could have gone a lot better."

She laughed, but she also cried at the same time. "You're an idiot."

He tried to adjust his seating, but when he moved he winced. "I'm well aware of that."

"Why would you do that?"

"Because you deserve it," Leo said plainly. "You deserve a happy ending, just like Percy."

"What about you?"

He looked away. "I...I've done so many bad things. And when I fell, I..." Leo looked back at her, but he looked more like a scared eight year old on the run from the cops than the brave hero that Annabeth had glorified him to be. "...I was reminded that I was never a hero."

"You've always been a hero."

"No," he said. "I'm not."

Leo coughed, but it splattered more blood on his shirt. Then he slid down the tree, Annabeth putting out her hands to stop him, but he let himself slide.

He placed his hands over one of the antlers that had pierced through his stomach, closed his eyes and ripped it out. A groan escaped from his lips, as well as a hiss, and he opened his eyes again. His hand fell to the side, where the antler slipped and fell down into the bushes below.

Leo grasped her hand weakly, leaving trails of blood over her own hands. His breathing came in rapid and panicked now, and Annabeth kept telling him to take deep breaths. If he kept hyperventilating he would pass out.

He unclipped the belt from his waist weakly and shoved the entire thing into her arms. "Potion-" he managed. "Safe."

"You're alright," Annabeth insisted. "We'll make it back to camp, you'll be all fixed up and we'll..."

"Anna...beth..." Leo whispered with a raspy voice. She placed a hand over the side of his stomach and his chest, but they were soon soaked in blood. She ripped off the side of his pants that hadn't been eaten off, and pressed the cloth against his chest. It soon was dripping with blood. _Oh, what to do_, she thought.

Annabeth blinked too fast and she felt tears threatening to fall. "Y-you'll make it. We just have to make it past this clearing a-and you'll be all better, you hear me?"

Leo thrust her hands away weakly. "Go," he ordered in a pathetic whisper. "You must...save Percy..."

Annabeth fumbled with his tool belt. "N-no, we can give this to you and run back and get another, just don't-"

"Give it to Percy," Leo insisted, his voice growing more distant. "This was my destiny. Asclepius warned me in the temple."

"Maybe this fortune telling skills weren't so bad," Annabeth sniffed. "Hold on, Leo. I...I'll get Percy all fixed and come back and help you. He knows what to do."

"Annabeth," Leo called back and tightened his grip on her wrist. "T-tell Piper I always...l-loved her. Don't let her mourn for me forever," he tried to smile but it became a wince. "I'll wait for her..."

"No! Leo Valdez, you will stay here!" She commanded. "You- you're going to be just fine, you hear me? You'll make it back alive, and then you and Piper will get together and you'll get married and have as many wonderful sexy amazing babies you wanted, and the life you always deserved." She was shaking his shoulders gently, and tears were spilling out of her eyes. This was all her fault. She was guilty. He had saved her life at the cost of his own.

Leo scrunched his eyebrows together. "Not your fault," he whispered. "Remember the parallel lines...Not your fault. Not your..." His eyes were still set on the setting sun, and she felt him pass from the body she held. Now he would be looking at the image of a rising sun in another life.

At the corner of his mouth there was a streak of blood, but she couldn't wipe it away.

She picked up the toolbelt and ran through the rest of the forest. No creatures dared to cross her, and even if that mountain lion showed up, she doubted she would have the mental strength to overcome it. The dagger in front of her, her beacon of light in the darkening jungle that was still filled with the world of the dead. The toolbelt in her other hand, feeling heavy in her arms, just like the guilt she was holding. Annabeth felt too heavy inside to even lift a finger, but only the constant reminder of Percy kept her walking.

* * *

Annabeth burst out of the clearing to see Piper asleep on her watch next to the fire, gently snoring beside the other tent.

She snuck past her friend and opened the flap in his tent. The sun was only minutes from setting, and she worried if she made it on time.

Annabeth was rewarded with a moan from him, sweat breaking out on his forehead. He was shaking like he had a fever and his skin was pale, so pale. She unstoppered the flask with trembling hands and lowered the edge over his mouth.

He started coughing. She made him close his mouth and forced the rest of it down. He shouted curses and screamed like the potion burned his body from the inside out, but when the last drop trickled into his mouth he stopped. He remained still, and Annabeth worried if he had died. Two losses in a day, she doubted her heart could handle that.

Percy's eyes shot open and he grabbed her hands and pulled himself into a sitting position. "Wh-what happened? What the Hades was that? What happened to your shoulder? Annabeth?"

Piper poked her head in the tent, awoken from her nap. "You got the cure?"

Annabeth hadn't spoken since Leo had... "Yes," she said in a terribly weak and raspy voice. Her eyes were still red from crying, and she felt broken. He had saved her life in Tartarus, and saved it again only a few moments ago. Now he was gone. And it was _all her fault_.

Piper seemed to read her expression too quickly. "What happened? Why are you covered in-?"

Percy connected the dots faster than Piper. "Hey, where's Leo?"

Annabeth dropped the glass bottle and curled her head between her legs. _All her fault_. She trembled and only sobbed once. He had told her not to mourn for him. Her shoulder burned still, like the fire had returned to that part of her body where it should have burned her before Leo saved her.

In an instant she heard Percy getting up and holding her, wrapping his arms around her securely. Piper choked on her next sentence and fell to her knees, holding herself as she shook. She didn't crawl any closer, and if anything, seemed to shrink into nothing.

"Where?" Percy whispered in her ear. Annabeth stopped mourning and stood up, almost indifferent. He didn't want them to mourn for him. His last wish. Well, Annabeth's last wish for him was to honor him in this life.

They left Piper crying near the fire again and headed back into the forest. Percy uncapped his sword and followed her in, and the questions started.

"What happened?" Percy asked while he cut through a vine and jumped over a large tree root.

She felt the memory burned in the back of her mind, a constant reminder. "We found Asclepius," she said as she kept walking. "He gave us the potion and we got a free palm-reading session. Then he freaked out and told us to leave, and we went back and took it and ran back here. Then the mares of Diomedes showed up and attacked me and Leo-" her voice caught. They were here.

He was still lying like he had been before. Percy ran over with his sword still in hand and leaned over his chest, listening for a heartbeat.

Percy drew his head away, cupping his hand over Leo's stomach and lifting his hands. Water from a nearby brook poured in through a fallen trunk out the hole in the side, and he washed out the blood and the dirt. Then he waved his hands away and the water vanished.

Annabeth kept a safe distance. She felt the overpowering guilt over her and it was too much to look at him.

He took a deep sigh and placed his hands under Leo's legs and arms. Then he lifted him from the ground like he would have carried Annabeth at their wedding. He walked back out to the clearing from the way they came and Annabeth followed silently like a mourner at a funeral procession.

When they arrived back at the camp, Percy set him down on one of the cots in the tent. Piper saw what they were carrying and ran towards them, but embraced Annabeth and sobbed. Annabeth patted her back, but she was mourning too. Piper choked out "Why? Gods, _why_ him?" and her legs gave in and she fell back onto her knees on the ground. Annabeth knelt with her, still ringing with Leo's words in his mind. _Remember the parallel lines. Not your fault._

Percy came back out with the grim expression he wore when anyone he knew had died. He'd worn it a lot in the Titan war, but even in the Giant war. He knelt next to the two of them and asked "Do we continue?"

Piper shook her head while more tears flowed out. "N-no. You guys can get the Olympus quest, but I won't...can't...continue." She placed her head in her hands.

"We have to do it quickly," Annabeth said. "Me and Percy will go tomorrow morning. You can stay here and guard camp," she said as nicely as she could to make it sound like it was an important job but Piper didn't look up to it.

"Okay," Piper whispered. "I...I'm going to take the first watch. You guys get some sleep."

"Uh-uh," Percy shook his head. "I've been sleeping since we got out of the desert."

Piper gave him a look like _haha, that's funny_,_ I wasn't asking you_ and sat by the fire and crossed her arms in an act of defiance. Percy sighed and went back inside his tent, and Annabeth slept next to him in their sleeping bag.

With all the thoughts and the guilt running through her head, she couldn't find the time to sleep. Percy had one arm wrapped over her stomach while he slept, and Annabeth kept listening to the movements of the ground beneath her pillow. The crackling of the fire kept her up all night as another painful scar that _this_ _was all her fault_.

Somehow she had dozed off. She was awoken by the sounds of singing. Gentle, soft, sad music from the outside. It swelled in the air like an orchestra of voices, and she could faintly make out the words;

_Here we are again_

_That old familiar place_

_Where the wind will blow_

_No one ever knows_

_The time or place_

The voices sounded delicate and mournful and they filled the air with their loss. Annabeth tugged off Percy's arm and raced for the flap of the tent to see the source of the music.

She was quite confused to see Piper fast asleep next to the dying embers of their fire and a small flock of choir women made of gold marching in a line towards the tent where Leo was resting.

Annabeth ran out and stood in front of the lead singer, waving her hands and trying to stop them. The lead choir lady had golden eyes, and she passed through Annabeth as if she was made of smoke. They continued their mournful melody;

_Don't cry for me_

_Don't shed a tear_

_The time I've shared with you_

_Will always be_

_And when I'm gone_

_Still carry on_

_Don't cry for me_

Annabeth screamed a curse, trying to pull them out of line and stop the procession. She vaguely remembered a tale about them, how Hephaestus crafted beautiful singing maidens out of gold to sing the arias of the gods. The _Khryseiai Keledones_, who were servants of the god of fire and produced the most beautiful music for festivals, but apparently that also had purpose for mourning and funerals.

They pushed into his tent, and two came out holding her friend Leo wrapped in golden cloth out of the tent. They never stopped from singing, and as they started to walk out of the field their feet lifted off the ground like they were walking on invisible steps into the heavens.

_No one is the blame_

_My death was meant to be_

_Don't carry guilt or shame_

_Reason why I came_

_Soon you'll see_

_Don't cry_

_When life is not the joy_

_It should be_

_With life comes pain_

_Soon time will end its course appointed_

_Then you will be rewarded_

_And all this world will see_

Then they vanished behind a cloud and the moon and she was left staring at a dark starry sky.

Annabeth breathed in and out, and was awoken by a loud wail.

Somehow she was back in the tent. Last night had been a dream. She saw Percy scrambling out of the tent. He paused at the flap, looked down, and pointed out "I am not wearing a shirt," and walked out.

Piper was on her knees again and sobbing. She was holding onto Leo's tool belt in one hand and cursing the gods as loud as she could. Her fist smacked the ground as she screamed and sobbed.

"Calm down!" Percy tried to convince her, but she hiccupped and pushed him away half-heartedly.

Annabeth sat next to her, and Percy went into Leo's tent to see why she was so upset. He came back out with a baffled expression.

"He's gone," he said. "His body's not there."

"Hephaestus took his son back," Annabeth said numbly. "He sent his singing servants last night to retrieve him. The gods are in mourning."

"What?" Percy asked, dumbfounded. "And that would mean-?"

"He's safe," Annabeth felt like she had a clump of cotton in her throat. "We can pay our respects to him when we return. We have to finish this quest."

* * *

The rest of the quest honestly didn't matter to any of them. They traced a trail of gold dust that fell from the heavens (and as much as she tried to convince herself it wasn't, it looked like the same dust of the monsters who had killed Leo) and arrived at an altar on a hill.

On the altar sat a large bronze box, glowing gold and silver and celestial all at the same time. Out of the shadows a bunch of ravenous man-eating monkeys had attacked, and Annabeth made sure none took a nibble of her shoulder. She'd learned that lesson from the first time.

"Woah!" Percy had shouted. "Duck!"

"Nope!" Piper had shouted back. "Monkeys!"

Piper had jumped in between Percy and a crazy monkey when his back was turned, and it bit her neck. Annabeth sliced the head clean off, supporting her friend. Piper had started laughing while she bled, as if the whole situation struck her as something funny. (Which it wasn't.)

Percy killed the rest of the tree swinging apes, picked up the box and held it near Piper. She fainted, but the wounds near her head and her neck slowly healed. From Annabeth's own (tortured) thoughts, she shared her theory that the box held the powers of the gods and it had been stolen. (Which explained the urgent quest.) Since they were demigods, and the blood of the immortals ran through them as well, the box could heal them. She felt it too, when she sat too close the box she felt alive and empty of grief.

It almost felt like a sin to crave the feeling, because the grief of Leo was still holding close to her heart, and her shoulder, and her head.

Piper woke up a few hours later, looked at the both of them, then the box and cried "_Dammit! Couldn't you have just let me die, just like _he _ did?_"

If anything, the guilt seemed to weigh even more.

Then they discovered on accident that if all three of them held the box at once, it teleported them directly to the throne room, which was actually somewhat of a relief. They didn't needed to travel all the way back to Olympus.

The conversation before they discovered the box could do that went like this:  
"How are we going to get home?" Percy asked.  
"I don't know," Annabeth had said tiredly.  
Piper had said nothing.  
"Well there has to be a way-" Percy brushed his hand over the box, which Annabeth had been holding, and Piper was being forced to hold so she could heal.  
Then all the world they knew turned white, flipped upside down, and they landed in the middle of the throne room of the gods.

Percy had immediately put a hand over his mouth and ran for the nearest fountain to throw up in. Piper had watched him go, burst into tears and ran out after him, leaving Annabeth holding the heavy chest of the gods immortal power.

"So," she knew, and no doubt she looked horrible. Her shoulder had been bandaged up and her hair was half burnt-off and most of their clothes had been ripped to nothing but the seams. "We're back."

* * *

After a few minutes of fussing from the gods, Apollo insisting on healing her shoulder (and that only reminds her of Asclepius and how Leo had gone through all of that just to heal Percy and then die), Piper and Percy returning and everything seemed okay.

Zeus took the box from her and handed it to an overly-grumpy Hercules. "You were supposed to guard this," Zeus said, but it sounded more like an exasperated sigh.

Hercules rolled his eyes. "Whatever." He took the box, saw Piper and shot a nasty glare at her, and vanished in a burst of bright light.

"Wow." Percy said, looking at Piper and then were Hercules disappeared. "I can see why you guys didn't like him. He's a _total_ ass."

"Percy," Annabeth said warningly.

"Ugh, but he is! Did you not just see that?"

Piper sniffled, and started crying again. "Stupid quest," she muttered. "I want to go home."

Zeus clapped his hands and the throne room went silent. He talked about the gratitude for the heroes who had retrieved their power, and called a moment of silence for those who had fallen (Piper walked out of the room for that) and then said thanks, and ended the council.

Most of the gods vanished. The few who remained were either bored, or not interested in leaving. Dionysus (or Bacchus, whichever he preferred) sat perched on his chair and was glaring at Percy, who was talking to his father. Athena stepped down from her own throne and started talking to both of them. Percy was shaking his hands like he was trying to convince her of something, and Poseidon was shaking his head. Athena was waving her hands at him, and from the way she was forming words, Annabeth could tell she was cussing him out in an eloquent manner of Greek and Latin.

Piper was sitting on the steps of the entrance, and a beautiful woman that Annabeth knew to be Piper's mother, Aphrodite, sat next to her. She opened up her arms, said something in French, and Piper hugged her while she cried. Aphrodite looked as hurt and grieving as Piper, while she rubbed her hands and her designer nails through Piper's messy hair.

There was one god that wasn't interacting, but rather was staring at Annabeth. Leo's father, Hephaestus, was sending her the deepest stare she had ever felt. She slowly walked up to him, and he stepped down from his throne and turned smaller.

"Hello," he had a gravelly voice, and he looked no different than the god she had met during the year of the discovery of the labyrinth, the year when she and Percy had...

"I'm sorry," Annabeth said. She couldn't meet his eyes, or his face, because she had never taken the resemblance before, but now it was hitting her between the eyes.

"I know," the god of fire said. "He doesn't blame you."

"He should."

"But I do." Hephaestus was still keeping an even gaze with her. "I am not sure if I should forgive you, or blast you to dust."

Annabeth bowed her head lower. "I almost wish you would blast me."

"However, I won't." She looked up. "As much as I wish to blame you, it was never your fault.  
Plus, he wouldn't have appreciated my actions for killing the girl he tried so desperately to save."

Annabeth looked out of the corner of her eye to Piper, who was rubbing her eyes and talking to her mother, trying to smile. Aphrodite put her hand on her daughter's cheek, said something, and vanished.

Hephaestus watched her gaze. "He loved her."

"I know." Annabeth's chest felt even heavier. "I think she might have loved him back."

"I think so too."

They didn't say anything for a few minutes. The rest of the throne room had gotten quiet, except for Athena's few curses filling the air. From what Annabeth understood, she caught a few words along the lines of '_jerk, arse, bastard, I should kick your sorry ass right back to Tartarus!'_

"I take it my mother isn't getting along with my boyfriend," Annabeth sighed.

Hephaestus looked expressionless. "At least she hasn't killed him yet. That's usually a good sign."

Annabeth didn't say anything. The god of fire gave a tiny cough. "About my son...you'll find him back at the camp. I expect you use the ancient rites."

"He wouldn't deserve anything less."

"I hope not."

Athena was still yelling at Percy, and she faintly heard Poseidon saying something in Greek that she didn't understand. Something like "_Now Athena, let's be reasonable,_" Athena responded hotly with '_shut up!_' and there was a great flash of light. Her mother left too.

Annabeth looked back at her boyfriend, who's shirt had caught fire, and his dad waved his hand and a gust of water enveloped him and put out the fire. Percy kept shaking his head, and Poseidon awkwardly put a hand around his son's shoulder.

"You'll have a happy future," Hephaestus said, watching Percy carefully, the same way he would have inspected a blueprint. "He'll be making changes shortly in the future."

"What kind of changes?" Annabeth asked suspiciously.

For a minute, she almost saw the god smile, and a familiar twinkle of humor how gods knew things that mortals didn't. "You'll see," he said, and then she blinked and he was gone.

She walked down the steps to Percy, who said one last thing to Poseidon before he vanished into a sea breeze.

Annabeth huffed when he walked over. "Why is it that _every _ time you talk to my mother, you always come back smelling like smoke?"

Percy grinned, but the smile didn't reach his eyes or the rest of his face. "Just some, uh, _complications_ with your mother."

"I see."

There was another flash of light, and Annabeth put a hand over her eyes to shield her from it. When she looked again she saw three figures; one of them holding a bow, the other half-asleep, and one completely naked except for a towel wrapped low around his waist.

"Holy Jupiter-!" Jason shouted loudly, turning all attention to him. "_What the -!?_"

"Jason!" Hazel had been falling asleep, leaning on Frank's shoulder, but she yelped and started fanning her face. "Put on some pants!"

"Jason!" Piper ran over and hugged her friend. Jason hugged her back, and then said "Okay, don't hug me too hard, this towel isn't exactly secure."

Percy laughed, taking Annabeth's hand as they walked over. Hazel hugged Annabeth and Piper, and Percy said hello to Frank. Then Percy walked over to Jason, raised an eyebrow "Now, _what _ in the name of Jupiter were you doing?"

Jason put his hand behind his neck awkwardly. "I was in the baths with Reyna and-"

"Wait. You were in the baths with _Reyna_?" Percy made a grossed out face. "_Ew_, dude!"

Jason's cheeks turned pink. "That's not what I-"

"Already up for batting I see," Piper teased as she elbowed Jason, but she still looked fragile. The scar on her neck stuck out even more in her fresh pink shirt. _Wait_. Annabeth looked down and noticed that her clothes had been repaired, and Percy's shirt was no longer gashed up. Aphrodite had decided to help out there.

If it was possible, Jason turned redder. "Don't think you're so innocent, Jackson, I caught you and Annabeth in the showers once!"

"That was that _one _ time," Percy complained. "And we were wearing bathing suits!" Percy turned a little pink too.

"Mmhm, but they didn't stay on for long."

"Shut up!"

Frank looked even more embarrassed by hearing their stories, and Hazel kept looking away and fanning her face and muttering "Oh gods. Oh gods, oh gods..."

"Hey," Jason frowned as if something had just occurred to him. "Where's Leo?"

Piper looked away. Percy stopped talking. Annabeth looked at the floor.

"Oh, is he in the forges?" Frank asked. "Or did he miss the invitation? The bunker?"

Tears formed on the corner of Piper's eyes, and she took off running. Percy chased after her yelling for her to stop, but she screamed a few swears at him.

The Romans stared at Annabeth. She looked up at Jason, who looked confused and innocent (if it weren't for the towel wrapped around his waist he would have looked like he was still in the life of a fourth grader.)

Annabeth cleared her throat, but she couldn't feel the words in her mouth. Nothing came out.

"Guys," Annabeth started. "I...on the quest to retrieve the god's immortal box, Percy got injured badly..."

She told them the story of how they trekked through the desert and how Percy got hurt, and then Leo's insisting to come with her to find Asclepius when they were told by a water nymph that only the god of healing could save him.

She told the story of the visit with the god of medicine, and then the trip back, the forest...

On the corner of her eyes she felt small tears forming. "And...I wasn't fast enough. He pulled me out of the way but he got caught in a tree and he..." She couldn't continue anymore. "He died."

The three of them were staring at her. Jason looked at her like she had gone crazy. "But...Leo. There's no way that-?" He looked around, as if expecting Leo to jump out behind a pillar and shout "_HAPPY APRIL FOOLS MOFOS!_" Annabeth wished that would happen.

Frank gaped. "Wait..so...?"

Hazel put her head in her hands. "Is that why Piper ran away?"

"Yeah." Annabeth said. "I...you guys should stay for tonight. We'll have to burn his shroud."

"But..." Frank looked confused at that. "I thought he was fire..?"

"Then it might take awhile," she said shortly, and walked out after the boy she loved and the girl who loved the other boy she had caused to meet death.

* * *

When they arrived back at camp much later, it's a silent taxi ride and a silent walk up the hill. She was embraced by younger campers, some siblings, and some of the newer campers just stared at her and Percy with awe. Piper talked to Leo's sister, Nyssa, and they hugged each other and exchanged their grievances.

Annabeth looked away. She didn't want Leo to know people were grieving for him.

Jason, Frank, and Hazel arrived later. Some of the Greeks still have grudges, but most have accepted the fact they had nothing to do with the Roman/Greek rivalry that almost destroyed all of Camp Halfblood.

Jason looked horrified. Hazel looked extremely downcast. Frank looked solemn. There was camp counselor meeting to discuss the recent horrific events, and Chiron came in to inform them that his body was sitting in the infirmary. Percy and Frank left to put a sheet over it, and Annabeth only put her arms out to Piper and held her. Nyssa had been hastily appointed temporary Cabin 10 head counselor.

They talked about the ceremony, the fire, and Piper was incapable of speaking the entire night.

When they finally had him wrapped, it's a golden red burial wrapping with flames etched on the sides. It was dark out and the camp was eerily silent, except for the melancholy strummings of a lone Apollo camper strumming his guitar.

They asked friends to stand at the amphitheater and say a few words, Nyssa spoke for her cabin, Hazel told the story of how Leo introduced her to a chicken nugget (which brought out tears and laughter) and almost blew up Camp Jupiter. Jason was not able to say much, but what he was able to was how Leo was his best friend and "I don't know..." He blinked quickly. "...I don't know what any of us are going to do without you, Leo."

Percy stood up and said Leo was the sassiest and coolest- "I mean, hottest- wait no, that sounds- ugh, he was the awesomest guy to bring on quests. Or anywhere. He always made jokes and he made things sound worse than they actually were." Someone somewhere in the rows of campers laughed sadly and quietly. Percy was trying to make his speech as light as possible, but when Annabeth looked at his eyes they looked dark and serious. "Okay, that wasn't a good thing, but we all needed him. I'm glad I got to meet him and be his friend in this life. I owe Leo Valdez many things, and most of all respect. The one I love might not be standing next to me right now if it wasn't for him."

When Annabeth was told she has to go, she didn't know what to say.

So when she stood on the top, and looked out at all the faces of teary strangers, she swallowed with a suddenly dry throat.

"When I first met Leo Valdez, I was no doubt unsure if he was worth bringing to camp. He didn't seem that special. But then the quest, and all his great ideas...Leo was very special. And no questions, he is the weirdest demigod I've ever met." She couldn't force a smile. "Even weirder than Seaweed Brain, and that takes pure talent. When people think of Leo Valdez in the future, I don't want them to think any of that. He should be remembered for what he died for. He saved me so I could live the life he thought I deserved. When people look back and remember Leo Valdez, I want them to remember the brave boy who stood in the way and took the blow for someone else. I want them to remember Leo Valdez the hero. He asked me not to mourn for him, I promise that, but I don't think it will hurt anyone to mourn for just a little while. Leo, wherever you've headed, I hope you never lose your humor. I think the spirits down in the Underworld could use some laughter."

That was all in her mind. It was on her tongue. But, in the end, she doesn't say any of that speech. She only took the few words she wanted, and the card of words in her hand is crumpled in her fist.

"Remember Leo," is all she was able to say. "Remember Leo Valdez, the hero who was brave enough to step in the way and save me. Leo, thank you. Thank you for being here. You deserved a better, longer life, and for that I am sorry. You deserved it. You were a hero."

(_Even though he said he wasn't one_.)

And she stepped back, and her spotlight was over. The heavy feeling in her chest never left, even when she sat next to Piper and Percy. and Percy held her in his arms because he wanted to protect her.

(_But he can't protect her now, and even he, Percy Jackson, can not turn back time._)

Piper went last, and she held the little lined flashcard in her hands that shook like she was in the middle of an earthquake, and when she made it to the top of the amphitheatre she looks like she is going to faint.  
(_And not from fear_.)

"Leo," she croaked out. She tossed her cards to the ground. "You've always been there for me. From the first moment we met at the Wilderness School, even until the quest where you went into the forest with Annabeth to help her find the potion to save Percy, you were always there. I remember everything about you. Your laugh. And your smile, and how I always beat you at playing MarioKart. I remember how much we cared about each other, and in the winter I would push you off the docks into the freezing water, and you'd always get annoyed at me and your hair would catch fire." She let out a tiny laugh that sounded more like a sob. "And now I know that someday I'm not going to be able to remember that, which is why I needed you. I need you now. I am thinking now, after all this is over, and I'll never be able to wake you up in the morning by tossing ice cubes down your back, but...I think I might have loved you. Goodbye, Leo." The last sentence is a whisper as Piper steps down, and she ran to Annabeth; who held her and Percy puts his arms around all of them.

No one moved, so Jason takes the wood from the fire and holds it in his hand. He dropped it on the edge of the silk, and the cloth seems to catch slowly, but when it does it swirls into patterns. People could only watch, mesmerized, as the fire licked along the sides of the shroud. Then the entire thing caught fire, casting long shadows on people's faces and making them look older and beat down. Annabeth saw the shadows reflecting on the scars over her hands.

(_Even the boy who was on fire can burn too_.)

They sit there until all the other cabins have left. The Romans lingered a little longer, but then Hermes showed up in a giant white mail truck and said that he is their ride back, so they hopped aboard the Hermes Express back to Camp Jupiter.

Percy kissed Annabeth's forehead. "I'm going to go to bed," he said. "You make sure Piper gets to sleep. You too, Wise Girl." He rubbed her shoulder, and walked away with the light of the fire still reflecting on his arms and his eyes.

Piper sniffled. "He's gone," she said in a hoarse voice. "He's actually gone."

Annabeth hugged her tighter. "I know." She said. She can't find the energy or the time of convincing to say '_It will be alright_.' Because it won't. It will _never_ be alright. "I know."

* * *

"Annabeth?" He was standing there. He was made only of mist and dark fog. "You shouldn't blame yourself."

(_How can you know? You're dead_.)

"I wanted to die."

(_I'm going crazy_.)

"It's not your fault."

(_It's all my fault_.)

"You deserved to live, Annabeth."

(_So did you_.)

"Is this how you remember me?"

(_No, I only remember the dying light in your eyes and the blood on my hands._)

"You aren't responsible for it."

(_The blood is still on my hands_.)

"Annabeth-"

"_Annabeth_." Someone was shaking her shoulder and saying her name in real life. She opens her eyes and saw Percy is looking down at her with a concerned expression. "Annabeth. You were screaming."

"Probably," she said, and her voice felt raspy.

"Do you want to come sleep with me? Malcolm fetched me from my cabin."

(_No, I can't sleep_.)

"Sure." She unwrapped herself from the sheets and followed him back to his cabin, her pillow in her hand. His arm was wrapped securely around her waist, steadying her. Protecting her.

(_I couldn't protect him_.)

He fell asleep next to her, and she watched the corner of his mouth for a dribble of drool to appear like it always does, but she is disappointed. He's not the little kid she met all those years ago. She didn't wish to accept it, but he's growing up. So is she.

(_Which _he _ never got to. He'll never forgive you for that_.)

It was a shame when she saw the sun rising through the cabin morning. She didn't sleep a wink the entire night.

(_At least she has Percy, and she wonders how Piper is handling it; without anyone to hold onto_.)

Percy slowly groaned and woke up, blinking sleepily at her. "How'd you get here?" His voice is still thick with sleep and his deep New York City accent comes out awkwardly. She almost smiled.

"You took me here last night."

"I did?" He yawned. "Oh, right. I wasn't really awake. Whoops."

"I should go back to my cabin," she said and went to leave. He didn't stop her.

(_Kind of like how she didn't stop him from leaving this earth forever._)

At breakfast, she sat at Cabin 3's table. No one really cared about the seating tables anymore, considering many of them were destroyed, so there wasn't enough for every cabin anyways. Percy sat next to her, loading his plate with lots of blueberry pancakes and some strange blue fruit she'd never seen before.

Piper was wrapped in a blanket, and she looked worse than Annabeth. Her eyes are bloodshot, and she's still sniffling. Percy puts his arm around her and pushes her into the table so she is seated right next to him.

"How'd you guys sleep?" Piper asked, and Annabeth can tell she didn't sleep at all last night either. It's not the bags under her eyes that showed the truth, it's the croaky voice and bleary eyes that gave it away.

"Great," Percy shoved an entire stack pancakes into his mouth. His cheeks bulged like that of a chipmunk filling up on nuts, before he swallowed the whole thing in a painful gulp.

"I had wonderful nightmares," Annabeth offered with faux cheeriness. "They just warm my spirit considerably."

Piper snorted. "I haven't even had the nightmares yet."

"I slept like a baby," Percy boasted loudly and proudly, while someone at another table snickered. It went unnoticed, or just simply ignored.

"I'm sure you did," Annabeth ruffled his hair. She picked at the food on her plate, but settled on stealing some of Percy's pancake. There was fruit on her plate that she didn't eat, but Piper does take some of her strawberries.

"He always loved strawberries," Piper said dreamily as she rolled the fruit in her fingers.

Annabeth almost choked on her pancake because her throat suddenly got uncomfortably tight. And then it's like she couldn't breathe.

She put her fork down. "I have a class to teach, I'll catch you guys later."

There are no classes that early in the morning, and the look Percy gives her told her that he knew that.

She had to carry her own guilt.

* * *

_Three Weeks After_

* * *

Piper was mostly keeping to her cabin, so Percy walked in every morning and dragged her down to breakfast. The first few times, she kicked and fought him while he carried her like a giant sack of flour across camp in nothing but her bathrobe. Now she got somewhat dressed and walked with him instead.

Annabeth tried to bury herself in work. She was constantly designing new additions to Olympus, and she wondered if she will even finish in her lifetime. Maybe when she died, the gods would send her blueprints in Elysium for her to work on.

(_There's a pang in her heart when she thinks that  
__because he might have been able to have that too._)

Percy was still at camp, gathering new recruits in nearby towns and constantly working actively with teaching swordfighting. There was always the problem when he stretches too far and the scar on his back reopens, but he was, for the most part, still the best fighter in the camp.

Cabin 10 is always working on projects, and more than one occasion Annabeth finds herself wandering to the entrance of Bunker 9 and staring at the door. It won't open for anyone anymore, and it's just a reminder of what she's done.

(_It's like all the guilt is locked inside-_

_just like the bunker door._)

It was on the night of the third week she was living that she has the dream.

She was plagued by nightmares every night. Annabeth was forced to relive the moment of his death, and re-watch it over and over again, as he is barreled into a tree and died by her side. Some nights Leo was replaced by Percy, or Piper, or anyone else she had ever had a care for in the world. She kept trying to convince herself it's a dream, but when she woke up she remembered that some of it isn't.

(_Her nightmares have become reality._)

This reality sucks.

(_She wishes it was just a dream._)

Sometimes there hallucinations; when she would look down at her hands and suddenly see spots of blood. His blood. And she would scream and freak out, and didn't calm down until Percy or Piper could retrieve her from her nightmares in the daylight.

(_His blood is still on her hands_.)

Annabeth saw Leo, like she always did. Except this time she was connected to him, so she felt his pain as he dies in her arms in the forest.

And then he's slipped away, and being carried off into the Underworld. He sat in a long line, and he's looking around, confused. He didn't look like he remembered anything.

(_And maybe, she thinks, that's a good thing.)_

He looked around the dull dead end horizon, and suddenly he was sinking through the earth. His misty hands clung to the ground, and reached out to other spirits for help, but he passed through them as if he was not there. They ignored him like they didn't hear (or they just ignore it) his screams, and he yelled even louder for help.

And just like that, Leo Valdez disappeared into the ground.

(_Now he's not just gone from this life-_

_he's gone from all lives.)_

When she woke she walked out of her cabin and right to the spot where his shroud was burned so long ago. She sat down and watched the fire that was still burning there, and for a minute in the flames, she swore she could almost see his smiling face in the flickering lights before the fire goes out in the breeze.

* * *

_Three Years After_

* * *

"Dammit, Percy, you have to _convince_ me!"

Jason was standing outside the door of the Jackson apartment, and he was unsure of what _exactly _ he heard going on inside. He didn't know if he should knock or not, so he peeked his head in instead.

"Piper!" Percy put his hands up in defeat. He dropped to both knees in a begging fashion. "Will you _please_ marry me?"

"No!" Piper shoved her hand into his face. "You are not convincing enough."

"Ugh, you women are so demanding! What should I do for her then, do a cartwheel off the table, fly ten feet in the air, do a somersault into a kneel and _then_ pull out the ring?"

"Not convinced!"

"Gods dammit!" Percy dropped the velvet box he was holding and saw Jason awkwardly standing in the doorway. "Oh, hey Jason. You're actually wearing pants this time!"

"Shut up," Jason blushed pink. "That was _one_ time."

"Heh, I still remember it," Piper ran over to hug him. "Where's Frank and Hazel?"

"They'll be here any minute." He looked at Piper and Percy, and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. "But I see you two are trying to proclaim your marriage out to the world."

It was an ongoing joke, because Jason was now accustomed to walking in on them practicing. Piper stopped hugging him and Percy picked her up by the waist, twirling her in the air and he exclaimed "Ah yes, I abandon my love of my life for this other pretty friend I have!" Piper blew him a kiss, and the two of them burst into giggles and peals of laughter.

Jason laughed too. "You guys are so weird."

"It's a Greek thing," Percy said, as if that explained everything.

"A Geek thing," Piper elbowed him, a playful smirk on her lips. "Like _Percy Geekson, who can't find the guts to marry his damn girlfriend already._"

Percy rolled his eyes. "I don't know if she's ready yet," but he sounded genuinely worried.

"Gods," Piper made a face at him and dropped to the ground in front of him in a bow. "Oh, I don't know whether to marry my love, because it's not like he's fallen to hell with me or anything! It's not like he's Percy Jackson, glorious savior of Olympus, is trying to marry me or anything! No, I will just reject his charm and renounce my entire _freaking_ life for some other black haired guy-" she paused and tried to think of one. "-I love _Nico_ instead!"

"Excuse me?" Nico was suddenly sitting on their couch, and Jason shrieked (in a manly Roman way) in surprise. Percy burst out laughing, and Piper tried to hold it in, but failed. Nico's eyebrows were raised, and his lip curled as if he didn't believe what he was seeing.

"Ah yes, the brave praetor of the Twelfth legion, scared silly like a little girl when a scary son of Hades pops up behind him," Percy was laughing and hugging Nico.

"Boo," Nico grinned a skeleton smile at Jason. Jason inched away from him nervously.

There was a loud creak from the window, and Hazel swung in from the kitchen by the fire-escape grill. A large hawk followed her, and he flew around the room a few times before landed on the top of Jason's head.

Jason glanced up warily at the bird. "Frank, I swear by all the gods, if you poop on my head again I will _murder_ you."

The bird screeched and hopped onto the couch, and halfway through, turned into Frank. "That was an accident!"

"My hair smelled like bird shit for a whole _month_!"

"And your haircut was quite hideous," Piper teased. "Reyna wanted to shave it all off."

"Ugh," Jason groaned. "I don't even know why I am friends with you guys."

"Because fate destined for us to be together," Piper said in a low voice that sounded more like a growl. "Yes, my little _padawan_, we must learn that fate is always controlling our lives."

Percy dropped to one knee and addressed himself dramatically to Hazel: "Annabeth, will you marry me?"

Hazel raised an eyebrow, and Frank looked at him like he had completely lost it.

"Aren't you guys a little too young to be proposing?" Jason pointed out, and his feet levitated a few feet off the couch and he floated easily towards the dining table. "I mean, you're only like, _twenty three._"

"Says you," Percy said, and made a grab for Jason and sneaked his hand into the latter's pants pocket. "But I saw something in here, and I don't think it's you."

"Hey!" Jason blushed and narrowed his eyes at his friend.

Percy pulled out another velvet box, his eyes wide and alarmed. "Woah. Uhm. I actually wasn't expecting this."

"Give it back!" Jason snatched it back, his face an even darker shade of red. "That wasn't for you!"

"I can tell. And you're a year younger than me. You're one to talk, mister '_you're too young to get married-_'"

Piper tackled Jason to the ground, Katropis in her hands against his neck. "You didn't tell me you were proposing!"

"I wasn't planning to tell anyone," Jason grunted. "Can you get off me?"

"No." Piper snapped. "You have to propose to her in less than a year, or I will march to Camp Jupiter and castrate you with a fork." Piper threatened, holding his shirt. "You hear me, Jason Grace?"

Jason gulped. "Loud and clear. No removing my body parts please, thank you."

Piper got off him, and Hazel looked worried. (Not for Jason, but for what Piper wanted for all of their futures.)

"You're next, Frank," Piper warned the son of Mars. If anything, he looked even more concerned about that than the rest of them.

Jason brushed himself off and muttered in a low voice; "I wasn't planning to propose for another two years."

Piper heard it, sadly, and got right in his face, holding a fork between them.

"Yep, okay, I got the message." He scooted away from Piper.

"What about you, Piper?" Hazel asked. "Got any special guys in your life yet?"

Piper shook her head, and laughed. "Unless you count Coach Hedge."

"Hey," Percy complained. "Am I nothing?"

"Oh yes," Piper rolled her eyes. "You're just my annoying friend who practices his proposals on."

"What about Leo?" Someone asked, so quietly it almost wasn't heard, and the conversation stopped, just as they heard the click of keys outside the door.

* * *

Annabeth was tired. She'd been having a rough day at work, and the gods were irritable and moody. She stormed out on Ares, informing him he was more crabby than Hera on PMS, and marched off Olympus.

She had the apartment keys in her hands, and her eyes were drooping a little when she finally put the keys in the lock. Some of her papers slid from her hands, so she stooped to pick them up, and pushed the door open.

"Annabeth!" She was engulfed by hugs, and she dropped her notebook in surprise. There was Jason, Frank, Hazel, Piper, all around her, and they ruffled her hair and asked things like; _how life has been, how are things on Olympus, etc, etc._

"What are you all doing here?" She asked when she was able to breathe again.

"Stopped by," Jason said and he picked up Piper and sailed her around the room like Peter Pan and Wendy. Frank transformed into a tiny white terrier, and he barked and yipped at Percy, who taunted him with a tiny dog bone. Hazel picked up terrier Frank and petted him, scolding Percy not to tease him, and Frank purred like a cat. Strange dude. (Animal, whatever.)

"We're staying for dinner, right?" Piper asked as she swung around the light fixtures for the fourth time under Jason's control.

Annabeth sighed. "Obviously. I don't think I have a choice in the matter anymore anyways."

Nico was sitting on the couch, and she can't help but scold him to take his shoes off the couch. "No feet on my couch," she ordered to him.

Nico put his hands up behind his head in a relaxing position and rolled his feet off the couch. "Fine, but I'm putting on the tv."

"Sure," Annabeth said, and went to her room to drop off her work materials. She came back to find that Frank was now an extremely chubby cat, chasing a flashlight that Percy was holding. Hazel laughed, and for a minute Annabeth sat back and watched the whole family scene.

(_But then in the back of her mind, the reminder of the day makes an appearance._

_How he missed all of this._

_And he would never get to celebrate with them.)_

"Annabeth?" Percy called her, and she snapped out of her daydream. "Can we talk outside?"

"Hmm? Oh, sure."

"Yeah, you guys go talk," Jason nodded, trying to look serious, but he snickered.

Piper punched him in the stomach, and smiled sweetly at Annabeth. "You two talk, I need to teach Jason another lessons with staplers and keeping his mouth shut."

She chased him around the room with a fork in her hands, and Annabeth doesn't question it- stranger things have happened- and walked out with Percy.

* * *

Percy closed the sliding glass door behind him, and looked out at the city horizon below them. "So, how was work?"

"Horrible," Annabeth groaned. "Ares is worse than a goddess on PMS."

Percy laughed, but Annabeth noticed that his hand is shaking nervously. All this time with him had taught her to pick up little details like that.

Percy cleared his throat. "So...uhm, summer's almost over."

"Sure looks like it," Annabeth hugged her shoulders. "I think we should visit camp again right before the season closes."

"Yeah." Percy swallowed. "Remember our first summer together?"

Annabeth smiled at the thought. "Hard to forget. We got together the day we also saved the world, and then that winter you were kidnapped by Cow Queen."

Thunder didn't rumble in the distance, which struck her as something odd. It was as if the gods were waiting for something and not caring about the rude comments she made.

(_It's as if they're expecting something, something big about to happen._)

"Remember I said I wanted to build something permanent?" Percy asked, and he started to crouch.

Annabeth thought about it. "Yes, I think I remember something like that."

He took out a box from his pocket, and she did her best not to gasp.

She gasped anyways. "Would you like to build something permanent with me?"

She stared at him, and bluntly asked; "Percy Jackson, are you proposing to me?"

"I think that's kinda how it goes," he smiled nervously. "Or would you like it the old fashioned way? Annabeth Chase, would you marry me?"

(_Then suddenly she sees a different life._

_She's seeing a different spot, but the same positions of two different people._

_It's the life someone else could have had._

_"Piper," Leo started. "Whatch'a thinking about?"_

_"Not sure," she admitted, and he squeezed her hand. "I'll try to decide what to think about."_

_"Maybe me," Leo gestured to himself and Piper laughed. "I'm quite the person to have on your mind."_

_"You're so silly," she said and pushed him lightly._

_"But you love me, don't you?"_

_"How could I not love you anymore than I already do?"_

_"I can think of a new way," Leo said smoothly, and with a grin he unfolded a red box from his hand. The top opened automatically, and he got on his knee and held it out to her. An offering._

_Piper put her hand over her mouth. She seemed unable to speak._

_He was still smiling, white teeth and glittering eyes full of life, "Piper McLean, whom I love, would you marry me?"_)

It was in that flash, she had suddenly lived a different life.

Percy was still crouched, waiting expectantly.

"Yes," she said. "Yes, yes, whatever else means yes, yes!"

He smiled, white teeth (like someone else she knew), and pushed the ring onto her finger.

When he picked her up and spun her around, and she looked at the ring up close on her hand, she is filled with excitement and joy that she has never felt before.

(_But there's also a sour taste of guilt that's weighing on her chest again, the one she hasn't felt for a while._

_She's living the life she deserved._

_And for the first time in three years, she remembers the last words Leo told her; "Remember the parallel lines."_

_She's the parallel to his life, still heading in the same direction with the same beginning and end, but only hers is the happy-ending-fairytale while his is the tragedy that has burned out and lays forgotten_.)

* * *

That night she dreamed of meeting Fate. The three old ladies, holding up a spool of red string.

The middle hag held up a pair of scissors, and then she cut the red thread.

Then one of them- all who are blind white white milky eyes- seemed to stare directly at Annabeth.

"_You have three chances with Fate,_" she said. "_One on the seventh day of the third month, then another on the third day of the seventh month, and the last on the hidden day. We will give you three chances._"

When Annabeth woke up, she realized what they mean. They had given her three chances to fix her mistake.

All she could question was: _how_, and _why_?

(_He always said he'd make a gamble with fate_

_Now so has she,_

_and she's not sure she can play her last dice._)

* * *

_Four Years After_

* * *

Annabeth dropped her bag at the door, and she could already smell a foul odor coming from under the door of the room.  
It had been a year since Percy proposed, and her life was hectic and constantly heading new directions, but she remained loyal to her friends and the promise to visit them all every so often..

Infact, she was paying one a visit right now.

"Piper?" Annabeth called through the door and rapped her knuckles on the door once to be polite and inform Piper that someone was there. "Piper?"

The door was unlocked, she realized, so she pushed the door open and shoved her bags inside. She searched the walls with her hands for a lightswitch, and when she found one, turned it on.

The light only made the room smell worse. Piper was in an island of sheets and covers, and she groaned and flinched away from the light. There was a bottle of wine in her hands, and a cigarette in the other.

"Piper," Annabeth scolded, snatching the cigar away and ripping the bottle from her hand. "Honestly, you should take care of yourself better."

Piper blinked and squinted at her, her mind still trying to process what Annabeth was saying. "I don't give a damn," she groaned and rolled into the sheets.

Annabeth tugged her out of them and she fell onto the floor. She was only wearing a bra and something too thin for underwear, but Annabeth left her there and tossed her a bathrobe.

Piper didn't move or attempt to get into the robe. "Why are you here? This is a bad time." Piper's voice was a low growl like a wolf that was too irritated to be woken up from its nap.

"I see that," Annabeth huffed as she folded the sheet into a neat square. "What were you doing in here?" She turned around and just noticed the large collection of knives that Piper had thrown against the wall.

"Piper, really?" She pointed at the giant holes in the wall.

Piper inspected the damage she caused to the sheetrock thoughtfully. "Hm, I think one of them has blood on it."

Annabeth looked closer, and Piper is right. She glanced back at Piper and saw the long cut along Piper's arm, where she had obviously cut herself.

"Piper," Annabeth yanked her wrist and took her into the bathroom. Piper put on the bathrobe finally, leaving Annabeth to assess her damage. Her hair was in all sorts of directions, even choppier and messier than before. She'd cut it recently, but there are no braids in her hair anymore. It was messy and looked like she did it while she was drunk. There are large dark bags under her eyes that almost looked black and dead, and her skin had achieved some sort of pale tinge to it. She reminded Annabeth of a war victim who had recently been released from imprisonment and just walked into the daylight for the first time in months.

Annabeth looked around the bathroom. Locks of hair lay and cover all over the sink and the floor, so she assumed correctly; Piper had given herself a haircut while being drunk last night.

"You've got to stop this," Annabeth gritted her teeth as she wipes off the blood on Piper's arm and wiped off the alcohol and sweat on her head and neck. "You're killing yourself."

"Sometimes I do that too," Piper hiccupped. "I think I might be able to find him that way."

(_And she understands why Piper wishes to waste herself away, even though she doesn't like it._

_Leo wouldn't have wanted this._

_Neither does Annabeth._

_He would have known how to fix her_.)

"Leo wouldn't have wanted you to be doing this," Annabeth snapped at the wasted girl.

Piper's reaction was more like she'd been slapped, and she blinked back tears. "How do you know? He's _dead_!" The last part was a raspy scream. She'd probably been screaming that all night.

(_She looks at the broken girl in front of her, and she can't help but think-_

_Oh Leo, you were always so good at fixing broken things..._

_...Try and fix her now_.)

* * *

_Six Years After_

* * *

Annabeth was rummaging through the attic at camp when she found it.

There, sitting and collecting dust in the corner near the old rocking chair where the oracle used to sit, it was hanging by an old bronze rusty hook on the wall.

Annabeth had been looking for scrolls. Just some old scrolls, and a few of the Archimedes scrolls that Leo had collected so long ago; but she dropped everything she had in her hands and walked over to it.

Leo's toolbelt seemed untouched, locked away in the corner of nowhere, tossed where it would be forgotten; just like the owner.

Annabeth took it off the wall and walked downstairs. Chiron was sitting by his table as he watched her go. "Annabeth?" he called after her, concerned, but she didn't hear him.

Piper, whenever she visited camp, had taken to sleeping in Leo's old bunk. None of the other Cabin 10 members minded or had any contradictions to this arrangement, so it remained her number one spot for wasting herself away. The bunk was haunted to the other campers, two head counselors in a row to have used it and be murdered while on missions. Piper stayed in the old Leo Cave about 90% of the time when she wasn't smuggling alcohol from Mr. D behind his back.

(_Annabeth wants to think it's so she can be closer to Leo_

_but in reality she thinks it's the only thing keeping her tied to her life_

_it's to live in his footsteps._)

Annabeth rode the little bed down, and hopped off. Piper was playing with a miniature version of Festus on the floor, and he barked and wagged his mechanical tail happily. He also sneezed out smoke, which Piper laughed at.

"Hey," Annabeth greeted her. "I wanted to show you something."

Piper looked up and saw the toolbelt. Her expression darkened. "I don't want anything to do with that," she said with disgust. Her eyes are full of betrayal and fear, and she turned away.

Annabeth reached her hand inside the belt and pulled out a tiny red box, and tossed it to her. "You say that later when you open it." She dropped the toolbelt on the desk in Leo's room, and headed back upstairs.

She was crying when she walked back up to the attic, and Percy ran into her. He was all sweaty from teaching swordfighting, and he grabbed her shoulders and looked at her with genuine concern. "Everything alright?"

"No," Annabeth said honestly. "No, it's not."

(_She was just daring with fate now._

_Stepping on things that shouldn't be stepped on._

_Disturbing the past and bringing back things that didn't belong in this time._)

* * *

Annabeth went back down late at night while the other campers were down at dinner. She took the bed down again and rode it to the underground room, and was unsurprised to see Piper sleeping on the old couch in the room that smells like ash and watching television with bleary eyes.

"I read the note," Piper waved the little paper in her hands. "And saw what was inside."

Annabeth looked around, surveying the damage. A wine bottle throne against another wall, and yet another in Piper's hand. She had torn down some posters on the wall and clawed holes in a blanket that covered her frail body. She was also shaking, and Annabeth knew it wasn't from the cold.

"I stole from Mr. D's stash," Piper hiccuped sleepily. "He'll be pissed."

"Most likely." Annabeth agreed, and sat down on the armchair next to her. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really."

"Okay then."

Piper swung the bottle in her hands freely now, eyes still bright and a little teary. "I'mma read it to you."

"Piper, I don't think that's a good idea-"

"'_Dear Piper,_'" Piper read anyways. "'I_f you read this, you've either stolen my toolbelt and gone through my stuff- in which case I will find you and tickle you mercilessly- or I've died. Or gone missing._'"

Piper sniffled and repeated the sentence as if it had a funny feeling in her mouth. "_Missing_. Missing from my life."

Annabeth remained silent and said nothing.

"'_I'm basically writing you this letter because I can never find the courage to actually say it,_'" she continued. "'_But I think I love you. I love everything about you. I love how you smile, and how you laugh, and how you pay attention to me even if I don't deserve someone like you. Thank Fate for letting me meet someone as wonderful as you. I'd do anything to have you in my life forever. I'd make even the most hazardous agreement if it meant getting to spend one more day with you._'"

The blood on Annabeth's hands returned. She could see it again. It had clotted around the finger where she wore a silver and gold wedding band.

"'_Someday I might tell you this. Until then, I'm just Leo, Repair Boy, and your lover._'" Piper put the paper down, took a sip from the bottle, and crumpled up the paper in her hand. "He wrote this while we were camping. Right before he went with you into the forest."

Something got caught in Annabeth's throat. She thought maybe it was the hand of death coming to take her away. Maybe she swallowed cotton. But, no, she knew it was the guilt in her chest that had somehow made it's way into her throat; drowning her from the inside out, consuming her like rabid fire.

Piper opened the red box back up. "He also made me this," she said and took out a little golden band in the foam. "It's a promise ring, to promise how he'd always be with me." She laughed humorlessly. "It's funny how quickly that promise fell apart."

"I'm sorry," Annabeth said, but that seemed like all she had been able to do; was apologize for her mistakes.

(_Leo was always good at running._

_The one time he didn't run away_

_is the one time he would never return._)

* * *

_Seven Years After_

* * *

_MARCH_

* * *

The idea came to her in a dream.

(_And like most of her dreams it's actually a nightmare_

_but it makes her realize something she hasn't thought of before_.)

In that particular dream she was reliving the moment with Asclepius (was that only seven years ago? It felt like a century) and Leo was rambling on about parallel lines.

"They're always heading in the same direction, right?" He said, his eyes wide with excitement and his hands waved about like a crazy puppet on steroids. "But say one of them intersect, you could alter its direction but also not affecting the rest of the line..."

And suddenly she was on a mission.

January passed, and February, and on March 7th early in the morning, she called up an old friend.

"Nico?"

He answered her groggily. "_I'm in Japan at the moment. Whadd'ya need? Preferably something made in Japan please_."

"I need you to come to the entrance of Bunker 9 right now."

"_Why_?" He whined like a little toddler that had just been told they weren't allowed to visit the lions at the zoo.

"Get over here!"

"_Ugh, fine_." He disconnected, and a moment later, Nico di Angelo was tiredly standing next to her in the room. "What's up?"

Nico had grown older now, but the long thin frailness in his body only made him look 30, not 20. Every time she visited him, Annabeth would swear he was simply being swallowed by death itself.

"I need a favor," she started.

Nico looked around. "What kind of favor?" He didn't look surprised at this.

"I need to bring Leo back." It came out wrong.

The request caught him by surprise, which was hard to do for Nico. Nico took a step back. "Annabeth, I thought we both learned that lesson with Bianca-"

"You brought Hazel back, didn't you?"

"That was different! The Doors were open back then, and Hazel deserved a second chance."

"So does Leo!"

He put his hands up to show he didn't want to argue with her. "Look, Annabeth, I don't know why this has become such a big deal to you, but-"

Annabeth took a deep breath, and it all came out in a rush. "I can't let this go, Nico. If it had been different, maybe if Percy had died, I would still be depressed, but this is driving me crazy. With Percy I know he would have forgiven me, even if it wasn't my fault. But Leo didn't have that chance, and I don't want this guilt."

Nico didn't say anything for a few minutes. Finally, he sighed. "Why today?"

"I got three chances to gamble with fate. One chance today, one chance in September, and another time that I haven't figured out yet."

He looked at her strangely. "And why would fate give you three chances to bring him back?"

"I don't know, why don't you go ask them?"

"Ugh, you're impossible. I don't know how Percy gets along with you. Take my hand, we have a lot of places to visit."

She took his hand, and the world dissolved into shadows that screamed in the darkness.

When she opened her eyes again, she stood in the middle of the clearing where Leo had died. "How did you-?"

"I can trace clues concerning death," Nico kicked aside a rock and it vanished behind some leaves. The field was unkempt as usual, but the grass had grown longer, almost seeming unrecognizable.

Annabeth walked up to the tree where Leo was stabbed, and her hands traced along the edges of the bark.

(_She doesn't wish to see it_

_but she can almost see his blood stains are still there._)

"This is where he died?"

"Yep." Annabeth's throat seemed dry. "It seems like yesterday."

(_Then she's in another parallel, but this time it makes more sense to her;_

_Leo is standing in the clearing instead, his hands on the bark of the tree, just like hers are right now._

_"Leo, are you ready to go?" Piper asks him. She slips his hand into hers, and he presses his head against the tree._

_"Yeah," he says. "Just give me another minute."_

_"Nico is waiting. I'll be right back."_

_She leaves, and Leo crouches down onto the ground, his hand never leaving the tree. He looks up and down the entire tree, from the tallest branch to the roots. The tree looks fairly dead._

_"Goodbye, Annabeth," he whispers._)

Annabeth knew she should have died that day.

Now the images she got only confirms it.

(_She didn't know it was possible_

_but now she feels even worse about it._)

Nico stooped down and picked up something off the ground. A piece of dark black crystal, the horn that had gored her friend and taken him away forever.

"Come on," he said. "We have another place to visit."

So they did that, traveling throughout the day and visited important places in Leo's life. Each time she visited one, she was struck by how miserable Leo's life really was. She thought her life had been bad, with a slightly cruel stepmother to begin, but no, his had been far worse. Annabeth had never appreciated his happy-go-lucky-attitude about everything until now.

It was the one at the workshop that blew her mind the most.

Nico walked around some remains of a collapsed building, knocking over dust piles and little pieces of blackened metal.

"His mother died here." he announced.

"Oh," was all she said.

Annabeth knew from hearing bits of Piper's conversations to piece together a few things; Leo's mother had died in a fire when he was younger, but it didn't seem real until she arrived at the workshop. Sitting in the remains of his old life, the spots where so many things happened to him, she didn't know what to do.

"The last place to visit is where he was born," Nico didn't take her hand. "It's not too far away from here."

"Okay," she said in a hollow voice.

They took a funeral march pace to the hospital Nico had in mind, and she stood outside. There was no large hospital sitting there like she expected, but a small empty clinic in the middle of nowhere. Sand blew in her eyes, but she did not blink or try to rub it out.

Nico stepped around the perimeter, and took a scratch at the old stone with his nail. "Depressing place," he commented.

"Now what?" Annabeth asked, while they walked off in another direction.

Nico's stomach growled. "We take a visit to McDonalds," and he stepped into a shadow and vanished.

"Hey!" Annabeth stomped her foot. "You forgot me!"

He came back a minute later, two milkshakes in his hands and two Happy Meals balanced on his head. "Take one," he offered and she stole it off his head. He handed her a milkshake, and they walked back towards the collapsed workshop.

"I'm going to warn you," Nico warned her as they walked. "There's a chance it won't work. We might only be able to talk to him."

"Good enough for me," Annabeth nodded. "I just need to know he's still there."

"Why's that?"

"Three weeks after his death..." she paused. "I had a strange dream. He was in the line, waiting to be judged in the Underworld, and his spirit got sucked into the ground. I didn't know what to make of it."

Nico frowned. "I've never heard of that happening before."

They stopped at the workshop, and Nico set down the happy meal, and slurped up the rest of his milkshake. "We'll wait until nightfall, and I'll try to summon him."

"Yay," Annabeth said, but her stomach bubbled with fear and apprehension. She couldn't help but wonder if it would go wrong.

(_Or there's the fear that he won't be there_

_and she'll have lost him forever_

_Three chances they gave her_

_here goes one._)

* * *

The sun set after an hour of waiting, and Annabeth stirred her straw around in her empty milkshake container.

"It's time," Nico said, and he walked towards the center of the rubble.

Annabeth followed him a safe distance away, but close enough to see what was going on.

Nico dropped the mare's horn, a leaf, and a collection of other objects he collected when they were traveling through spots in Leo's life into a circle. Then he dropped in the rest of his Happy Meal, and started chanting in Ancient Greek.

Annabeth had only seen this done once before, and it's not creepier than before. Nico was pale in the moon, the pale blotches of his skin whitening to parchment, but he kept chanting.

Spirits danced in the shadows around them, and Annabeth stepped a little closer to the protective shield she called Nico. Cold flames flickered all around, and she shivered and wished she had brought something a little warmer.

A lone spirit wandered to the center, and knelt down to take some of Nico's offering. However, when the spirit rose, it's not Leo.

"Howdy," the spirit is older, but Annabeth can almost see the resemblance to Leo. The spirit was almost see-through, with a pale shirt and suspenders. He also wore a strange sort of jockey-hat on the top of his head like a jock would. He glanced around at the both of them before speaking with a crackling voice; "My name is Samuel Valdez. You can call me Sammy, though. Is there any reason y'all are calling on the Valdez tree?"

The name rings a bell to Annabeth, but she couldn't remember from where.

"We're looking for Leo," Nico said calmly. "Have you seen him?"

Sammy looked at Nico for a moment. "No, now hang on just a minute, Leo's too young to be partying' with us old spirits. Are you telling me he died?"

"Seven years ago," Annabeth said. "I was there."

Sammy Valdez looked at her with sad eyes. "I'm afraid he ain't with us down here, or I would'a found him. Maybe Anza, his mama, knows. Anza, have you seen _su hijo?_"

He listened for a moment. "Nah, she ain't seen none of _bebito_ down here. You sure he's dead?"

"Yes," Annabeth and Nico said together.

Sammy scratched his head. "Well, I can't help you then."

"Wait," Annabeth put her hand out. "I've heard your name before, I think...did..did you know Hazel?"

Sammy's eyebrows shot up. "Hazel?"

"Yeah, Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto. She's my friend-"

"Annabeth, that's enough," Nico warned. "There are some timelines that shouldn't be touched."

"But-"

Nico waved his hands and spoke a command. The spirits dissipated, but Sammy Valdez bowed and pretended to drop a hat to them before he vanished into the fog.

Annabeth sat down, and the temperature around them returned to normal. She still felt very, very cold inside, like her heart had suddenly turned to ice.

"Do you know what that means?" Annabeth asked Nico.

He had a dark face, and his eyes seemed to be looking somewhere else where she couldn't see. "It means his spirit is no longer in the Underworld."

"Do you mean he tried for rebirth?"

"No. I would have felt that. It means he simply has been erased."

"Erased?" Annabeth asked, and the worrying in her mind started all over again.

"Yeah. It means he doesn't exist."

* * *

_APRIL_

* * *

_MAY_

* * *

_JUNE_

* * *

The camp was slowly filling up with new recruits, like it did every year. Percy was talking to her, but she wasn't really paying attention.

"Hey," He said.

"I think Piper's teaching canoeing," Annabeth responded, not taking her eyes off the paper in her hands.

"Uhm...okay. Do you want to go to the docks later?"

"No, your mother hasn't called me yet."

"So...I'm having a heart attack."

"Cool. I think Jason said the same thing."

Percy ran his hands through his hair and tugged on it like he was going to rip it out with frustration. "Annabeth! You're doing it again."

She looked up. "Doing what?"

"Zoning out of conversations. I just said I was having a heart attack and- Ugh, nevermind. I'm going to find Piper." He left, leaving her somewhat confused and a little amused.

Annabeth went back to her laptop. Just the time of year again when she usually sorted through designs and tried to organize them into sections of prototypes for this year and designs from the year before.

She sorted through designs until she came across a file labeled "_ARCHIMEDES: SCROLL FINDS_" and didn't remember putting it on there. In fact, she didn't remember having that file on her laptop at all.

She clicked on it.

Inside, there were all sorts of prototypes in there as she skimmed through the files. Some of them were similar to Daedelus designs, and others were simply puzzling.

Annabeth came across one file she found was labeled "_7:3: OMEGA POWER TRANSPORT_" and opened it with a double click.

Inside the file was a long and very detailed prototype for some sort of transport, and the different ranges of power on each...

_Level one: Power on_

_Level two: small item transport_

_Level three: large item transport_

_Level four: small child transport_

_Level five: adult transport_

_Level six: large adult transport / multiple transport_

_Level seven: ?*_

_*? - Level seven should not be attempted unless under extreme caution. Only one attempt has been made, and the user never returned.  
__It is theorized that the power was converted and transported the carrier back in time._

Annabeth stared at the screen. And suddenly it clicked in her mind again, the three chances she was given to fix her mistake.

She grabbed her laptop and headed out to the Bunker. She didn't have a plan for how she would get in, but there's sudden inspiration in her head that she can't ignore.

When Annabeth reached the door, she puts her hand on it. The door didn't open, like she expected, but she slid her hand down to the bottom and discoverd a switch.

For a minute she hesitated. It could be a self destruct switch. Or something worse. But today was about taking chances, so she flicked it in the opposite direction.

The door glided open, giving her access once again to Leo's hidden Bunker 9.

Inside, the Bunker was dusty and looked no different than when she had last been inside; seven years ago, when Leo attempted (and failed) to repair Festus. The mast head sat on a table with a sheet over it, and she passed it on her way to the back work table.

With the plans of Daedalus and Archimedes in mind, she attempted her second chance.

(_Or there's the fear that she can't do it_

_and she'll have lost him forever_

_Three chances they gave her_

_here goes two._)

* * *

_JULY_

* * *

_AUGUST_

* * *

"Where have you been going?" Percy asked her in the morning at breakfast, and she just shoved more food in her mouth in response.

(_She's been busy_

_very busy_

_and when she's holed up in the Bunker_

_she starts to understand the loneliness Leo felt_

_tucked away and misunderstood.)_

"Work," her answer sounded vague.

Percy sighed, before leaving to go teach his sword fighting class as per usual schedule.

Piper sat down next to her. "Annabeth, I know you're trying to do something regarding Leo."

"No I'm not," Annabeth was suddenly craving pizza with broccoli for some reason. "I'm just hungry."

"Then are you pregnant?"

Annabeth choked on her food, not considering the fact before, and Piper patted her back so Annabeth could breathe again.

"No!" Annabeth exclaimed, alarmed. "What gave you that idea?"

Piper shrugged. "No idea. I just want to know why this whole thing with Leo is so important to you."

"He's my friend. I owe him something."

"No you don't."

"Yes, I do."

They stared at eachother a minute. Annabeth sighed.

"You know why I'm so involved with this whole Leo-thing?"

"No, I don't, but I have a feeling you're going to tell me." Great, another Piper mood swing with only _sass_ spewing from her mouth like her old cornucopia of food-avalanches.

"It's because he deserves another chance. And I don't like having debt on me, or I'm going to die alone and crazy."

"Too late for that."

"I'm going to the bunker," Annabeth stood up. "You talk to Percy, I think he's mad at me."

"He's not mad," Piper muttered. "He just thinks you're pregnant, and he's flipping out."

"For the last time, I am not-!"

"I know!"

"Shut up!"

* * *

_SEPTEMBER_

* * *

After their ten year anniversary, now the start of the school year, campers packed and set to leave for school or other various arrangements.

Annabeth still hadn't left yet, because it was September third, and she had a pre-set arrangement with destiny.

The machine glowed to life. According to the instructions, she should try teleporting something first before attempting a new power level.

In her hands she held a hand-held remote (it's an old used black Wii remote, just to add Leo Valdez flare) in one hand and a bag of apples in the other.

"Okay," she whispered and turned the dial up to level one. "Come on, work." Annabeth wished her words alone could command the machine to work perfectly. Sadly, she doubted that her words alone could manage that.

The machine hummed to life, and glowed a bright blue with the giant delta sign on the side of the door. Good sign.

Annabeth turned it up one more level, and tossed an apple in.

She shut the glass door, and pushed the _A_ button with her thumb on her Wii remote for it to teleport.

A bright flash of light, Annabeth turned away and winced at the bright glare, and when she looked back, the apple had vanished.

She waited a few minutes, and then pressed _B_ on the remote and the machine whirred to life again like a purring lion. The apple returned back to it's earlier position, and she grinned. So far so good.

She turned it up one extra level.

Then she tossed in the entire bag of apples, and teleported it away. It came back safely, all the apples accounted for. Things were looking good.

Annabeth took out a tiny plastic container from her bag. Annabeth felt bad about risking the poor lizards life, but in the end, she figured better the lizard than one of her friends to experiment on. She let it out into the glass, and it crawled along the sides for a minute before falling back on the plate.

She pressed _teleport_ and the lizard disappeared in a flash of light.  
Then she pressed it again, and the lizard returned once more. _Alive_.

Annabeth put a tag on each of her items. On the apple she had put a small incision so she could locate it again for it to be returned without having to build two teleport devices on areas of the Earth. She just had to throw in one transmitter for the bags of apples, and she had tied one around the lizard's foot to keep it within range.

She opened up the container and placed the lizard back in, breathing and alive, and that's good enough for her.

She slowly dragged up the power to five, and six, and finally seven, teleporting apples back and forth, and her little lizard, and when she tossed the apples in on level seven they don't come back.

Annabeth hesitated. It could be a warning that if she goes back in time she might never return.

But she has to take that chance. She came all this way, to build the machine, put in the time and the thought process to get this far. She had to do it. She set the power level; it can be specifically adjusted at a later time, so she set the power to _7:3:7:3_ as her code.

Annabeth opened up the glass door and slipped herself in. She kept the remote in her hand so she could come back if she needed to, and held onto her mail carrier bag for anything else she might need. She just has to fix what she did wrong.

Her fingers trembled as her hand hovered over the _A _ button. It's now or never-

She pressed it.

In a flash of light, she was gone.

* * *

Annabeth opened her eyes and looked around. She was standing in a white room. For a test, she touched her elbow, she was alive. So far everything seemed normal.

"Mhmm, Jason..."

She jumped back and turned around. Some other person- or persons- were in the room.

Annabeth was most surprised to see her friends Reyna and Jason in the middle of a very passionate make out in their villa on Reyna's bed.

(Her and Reyna have been friends because of their shared values and perspectives on situations, but this wasn't expected from the Roman praetor that Annabeth knew.)

The only thing her mind processed was that she had somehow teleported herself to Camp Jupiter without knowing it. The levels must have been set wrong.

"Jason!" Annabeth yelped when she saw Jason was wrapping his hands down _somewhere Coach Hedge would not approve of_. "Reyna!"

Reyna shot up on instinct, and Jason jumped up- but he flew up, went ten feet in the air and hit his head on the ceiling, and then fell back down.

"Annabeth!" Reyna flushed, desperately and hurriedly fixing her braid which came out in Jason's fingers. "How did-?"

"I teleported," Annabeth said, and it sounded crazy even to her. "By accident."

"That's very nice." Reyna said. "And also didn't make any sense."

(_Leo's sitting in his glass chamber, a black Wii remote in his hands._

_He disappears in a flash, and he's sitting in the Jupiter villa. Reyna and Jason are in the same positions._

_"Holy shit-!" Leo screeches and Jason jumps out the window. He flies up, leans over, and falls out. Just like that._

_"Valdez!" Reyna is glaring at him. "Any reason you just wanted to drop by? Get off my table!_")

"I know," Annabeth said. "I'm going to head back now."

Her hands folded around the B and she went back home in the glass chamber on her metal plate.

"Okay," she stepped back. "At least I know it works."

Annabeth increased the power level even higher, just below the _DANGER! WARNING! UNSAFE POWER LEVEL!_ "Hopefully this one works."

Annabeth hopped back inside and pressed the button.

This time she landed on Jason, who woke up right after she teleported onto his stomach.

"JESUS GODS DAMN-!" Jason started swearing and Annabeth stepped off the blonde son of Jupiter.

Reyna casually sipped a mug of coffee and watched the whole scene with interest. "Accidental teleportation again?"

"You bet, I feel like Doctor Who."

"Mm, that's a good show."

"Funny, last time you said '_mm_' Jason was trying to take advantage of your clothes," Annabeth raised an eyebrow.

Reyna spurted out her coffee, and Jason threw his shoe at her, but she started laughing and goes back to Camp Halfblood with her buttons and her mysterious gadgets and gizoogles.

The first thing she did when she got back was turn the dial of power up to a super danger zone, stepped back in and pressed the button.

The machine hummed louder than it did the other times, and then the flash of light felt a lot more painful than it did the times before, which translated into her brain for the few seconds she was traveling through space; _uh oh_.

Annabeth landed wrong on her side and sped through the villa and hit a wall. Jason swore loudly and ran into a wall from the spook, banging his head and falling next to her while groaning. Reyna dropped her coffee and rushed over, yelling at Jason to get a healer. He groaned and got up, and flew out the door.

Her head spun and her leg was oddly numb. Reyna wrapped her toga around her, lifting her head off the ground.

"What the Pluto were you doing?" Reyna demanded, angrily wrapping her toga around Annabeth's leg to stop the bleeding. Annabeth didn't recall cutting her leg on anything. She lifted her head and saw that when she teleported, she went right through the wall and into a fountain. Her leg was cut on the side and dripping out blood all around her. "First teleporting, now you just fly through my wall and into the fountain of Fortuna..."

Annabeth started laughing for some reason, which doesn't make sense, because she was bleeding out at an alarming rate, but the whole situation just struck her as funny.

"Not teleporting," she cracked up. "I'm trying to time travel!"

"You've hit your head worse than Jason," Reyna wrapped her up and lifted her up off the ground. Another pair of hands went under Annabeth's limp form, and she vaguely saw an outline of Jason lifting her into the sky, blue sky, clouds...

(_Leo is bleeding out and Annabeth is trying to hold it in him, save him_  
_He's staring at the same blue sky_

_all the clouds_

_the blue vastness of it_

_and then he feels light, and he wonders if this is what it feels like to fly_

_he flies away_

_and he's gone._)

* * *

Annabeth woke up in white sheets and staring up at a pair of scrunched up green eyes.

"Annabeth," Percy's voice was low, so she knew he is angry at her. "What in the _world_ were you thinking?"

She didn't say anything.

"Is this hormones or something? I don't even know how you managed to teleport yourself from one camp to the other, but all I know is that you've really screwed up big this time. Why would you do this?"

Then that she realized he had crying, because his eyes were a little puffy and red.

Someone tackled her into a hug, Piper, who starts swearing how she is going to murder Annabeth for scaring them all like that.

Annabeth patted her back. "It's okay, I'm not going anywhere."

Piper's eyes were still brimmed with tears. "Yeah, that's what Leo said too, and you know where he is now."

"It's gonna be okay," Annabeth convinced them. "But, about transport between camps, I solved that problem with science."

"Really?" Reyna leaned in from the chair across from her, attention grasped.

"Yeah. Teleports. We'll make two different ports so it's safer than what I was doing." She laughed for the first time in a while, and her throat seemed as raw as sandpaper. "At least I got something out of that."

* * *

_OCTOBER_

* * *

_NOVEMBER_

* * *

_DECEMBER_

* * *

Annabeth was running as fast as she could. She just got a call from Percy saying he got a strange message from Piper, and to go check on her.

The elevator was taking forever, so she took the stairs- three at a time- to the third floor, where she ran down a hallway and pounded on Piper's apartment door.

"GODS DAMMIT PIPER, OPEN UP THIS DOOR NOW! IF YOU DO NOT OPEN THIS DOOR _ RIGHT NOW_, I WILL HANG YOU UP BY THE HAIR AND _TAKE THIS ENTIRE DOOR APART!_"

Piper didn't answer, so Annabeth took out a little screwdriver (note: not a sonic one like Doctor Who, although she had a fake one back at home) from inside her bag and picked the lock to the door. Sometimes spying on the Stolls did teach you something. She popped it out and pushed the door open forcefully.

The entry room was empty where she dropped her bags and sprinted for the bathroom. The door hadn't even bothered to be locked in there, and Piper's was sitting on the floor, passed out with a bottle of something in her hands.

Her old knife, Katropis laid in her hands, but she wasn't bleeding. Had she seen a horrible image? Had it caused her to-?  
Annabeth picked up a piece of paper off the floor with shaking hands, a suicide note with one sentence:

_I'm coming to find you, Leo._

"Stupid girl!" Annabeth shoved the note in her pocket and hoisted Piper up by the arms and dragged her out of the room. Her limp head rolled to the side, and when Annabeth put her fingers up to her neck to check for a pulse, she thankfully found a weak one. She put herself to sleep; a very deep sleep.

No time for a cab, only enough for the speedy ride a pegasus could give her. Annabeth whistled a good loud taxi cab whistle like Percy usually used, and a black horse swooped from the sky and picked her up, riding into the distance with her friend on the back while she breathed slowly in and out, in and out.

A complicated explanation in the hospital later on, and Jason immediately teleported to the city and flew straight to the hospital. Piper stomach was pumped, and those from Camp were sneaking her ambrosia when the nurses weren't looking.

Piper stirred two days later while Annabeth was visiting. She glared at Piper, who groggily asked "Am I dead yet?"

"No, but you tried very hard," Annabeth slammed down the drink on the counter next to her bed. "Have some charcoal, you need to clean our your system." Her words were practically being spat out of her mouth like venom.

Piper frowned deeply. "Charcoal?"

"It'll make you throw up any other pills you decided to take." Annabeth was beyond angry at that point. "You accused me of throwing my life away, and 'not to scare you guys like that ever again'- what did you do here, Piper? You scared the living shit out of all of us, Percy's worried himself sick, Jason can't sleep, and you're making my life so much harder! Do you have any idea how much guilt I'm holding onto now?"

She probably started screaming. Piper just blinked, expecting a nurse to come bursting in and tell Annabeth to calm down, but none come.

"I'm sorry," Piper whispered. "I just happened to find the red box again, and...I just wanted it to end."

"I know," Annabeth suddenly felt tired, almost like she hadn't slept since Leo died. "I'm losing my mind just thinking about it."

(_Maybe she already has_

_because she's seeing him everywhere._)

"We'll get through it," Piper promised. She folded her hands over the thin white hospital sheets that look like paper. "One more chance."

(_One more chance_

_one more chance to fix everything_

_Annabeth just needs a plan._)

* * *

_FEBRUARY_

* * *

On February third, Annabeth was dreaming freely again. She had happily been dreaming of herself and Percy, sitting by the water and talking (she's not even sure what) but it made her feel happy. The sun sparkled ripples on the water.

Which meant she was even more disappointed when she woke up and found out it just a dream.

"Sweet dreams?"

Her knife moved into her hand faster than she could blink, out of her bed and on her feet, ready to fight.

Someone chuckled in the corner where the shadows stretched and made it impossible to tell who the owner of it was. "Now, now, Annabeth. You only attack strangers after you know they're a threat."

"Who are you?"

"That ruins the mystery, doesn't it." Something gold glinted from the shadows. "I came because you need my help."

He stepped out of the shadows, gold eyes and gold crown, a cruel and playful smile on his lips. He wore a white shirt and black pants, his hands crossed over his chest like he was waiting for a train to catch. Or a demigod to kill.

"Kronos," Annabeth hissed. "Get out. I don't have any bargain with you." She was alarmed to see how the old titan looked healthy- _complete_. But how-?

Kronos made a _tsking_ sound. "Honestly, Annabeth, if _I_ was the evil Titan lord of Time, I would have blasted you to smithereens by now. No, I'm the calmer companion, Chronos, the _god _ of time. We're two sides of the coin, one of us extremely evil, the other serving good."

"You lie."

"Do I?" The god mused. "I came here to offer something of high value to you."

"I don't need anything from you."

"A chance, Annabeth Chase. You have a single chance left with fate to fix your mistake regarding Leo Valdez. Of course, I have the power to grant you the ability to fix it..."

Annabeth froze. How had that offer suddenly gotten so deliciously tempting? "I'm listening."

"...Now, granted, I _can't_ send you back in time. That'd be violating all types of Ancient laws, nasty business to bypass those. I can, however, send you to a different life."

"Excuse me?"

"Being the god of time allows us to change things at will, but it will never be the same in a parallel universe." The gold in his eyes struck a bit of moonlight and the eye glowed brighter. "It will be with the same characteristics, but it's never in the same place; but, that's why I am gifted with my power to be able to intersect the parallels without disturbing the rest of the line. I'm simply altering one point and connecting it with another. I'm always fixing flaws in time, patching up for my counteract, Kronos."

He got a dark look in his eyes when he said that. "I'm always fixing his mistakes." He grumbled. "There are some things I can't fix in all dimensions, however, which is why there are wars and such...ugh, _terrible_ wars." He stepped a little more out of the shadows toward her. "So, Annabeth Chase, do we have a deal?"

"What's the catch?" Annabeth asked. Why was she even considering this? She must have lost her mind.

"Catch?" He gave her a look, and a confused, apologetic smile. "There's no catch."

"There's always a catch."

"Ah, you've forgotten, I'm the complete opposite of Kronos. While he is called to destroy, I am called to repair." He extended out his hand to her. "We both need to repair something, don't we?"

Her legs betrayed her, because she walked toward him. However, she had one last question; "Why do I have to fix it then, if you're the god of time?"

"Because you're carrying the guilt. You need to fix it yourself, and it's only something that you can do."

* * *

Chronos started by training her. He practiced by teleporting her from place to place so she could adjust to the pressure change and panic when traveling through dimensions.

The first time she attempted it, she felt so constricted that she let go of the air she held and passed out.

When Annabeth woke up, she was back in her cabin. Almost as if nothing happened.

He came again in the night, to prepare her for the long journey ahead of her. Chronos told her all the rules, the unbreakable laws and guidelines when passing through dimensions in lessons.

Chronos shared much with her, but a few things he refused share with her. Annabeth pretty much abandoned all logic by a certain point, because time was so confusing and illogical her brain gave up on trying to make it rational. It became irrational numbers, just like repeating decimals.

(_Don't let logic rule your heart.)_

He trusted her enough to give her a magic gold watch, and taught her how to use it. The watch had a turn to slow down time, stop it, or rewind. It also allowed dimensions to fast forward, but those still remaining in the far past couldn't be sped up and those in the far-future can't be rewound. It was very confusing.

He thought she was ready, so he put her on Blackjack while her mind was shut off and flew her to the top of the bridge. She woke up shortly after she landed, Blackjack whinnying and flying back to camp to warn Percy what her body was doing.

She screamed when she opened her eyes, because below her on the ground was a very long fall. Cars, traffic, a solid bridge- and even if she missed the bridge, she'd slam over a hundred feet into cold water and drown on the spot.

Annabeth tried to back up, grab onto anything, but her shoes slipped from out beneath her and she whipped through the air at impossible speeds, screaming as loud as she could.

_Annabeth_, said a voice in her mind.

The only thing that registered was panic in her mind.

"_AAAAAHHHH!_"

_Annabeth, you have to trust me._

"I TRUST YOU, I TRUST YOU, NOW GET ME OUT OF HERE!" She screamed. (Afterwards he told her it was '_necessary to form a trust bond so they could communicate through dimensions by thoughts._' She would have appreciated a warning in advance.)

Chronos zipped out of nowhere and caught her right before she hit the water. He dropped her by the shore, and her knees shook when she landed back on solid ground. "You have to trust me. If you lose trust in me, you will be ripped out of the system and erased from history."

Her adrenaline still high, she managed to wheeze "What about you trusting me?"

Chronos smiled, his gold eyes gleaming. "I already trust you. You have a good heart, and you know what is right. I trust that, so I trust you."

"Good," she collapsed

* * *

_February 29th, The Hidden Day_

* * *

_3:05 PM_

* * *

On the same day of the bridge experience was also her day of travel, she got a call from Percy on February 29th (also known as the hidden day because magic from all other days is stuck in this day), the day she was to leave for Leo's alternate life.

"_Annabeth? Annabeth!_" he yelled into the phone.

Annabeth picked it up and smiled apologetically at Chronos, who was in the middle of telling her a list of possible things that could go wrong. For instance, if she touched a time line and disturbed a balance. She would be destroyed if she made contact with the other world.

Wonderful.

"Yes?" she picked it up and held up a finger to the god of time. _Need a minute._

_"Annabeth? What is going on?_" He sound worried and panicked, holding a heavy feeling in her chest for not telling him, keeping him in the dark.

"I...I can't tell you."

"_Blackjack just burst into my cabin through the window saying you flew to the top of a bridge. Are you okay? Where are you?_"

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

"_Annabeth!? Don't hang up on me, just be rational, don't do anything stupid-_"

"I'm sorry," it took all her effort not to break down, tell him everything, her deal with the god of time. "I love you."

Her finger hovered over the end call. Percy's last sentence wasn't cut off. "_Annabeth I love-!_"

Her hands shook when she handed the phone over to Chronos, who vowed to keep it safe for the time she will be gone.

If things go well, she will be back to call him him, and maybe more.

If she failed, it will be the last call she'll ever make.

* * *

_3:06 PM_

* * *

He prepared her (or so she hoped) for what an actual time traveling experience should feel like. She wore her old mail carrier bag over her shoulder, a sheet with symbols she practiced to say, and the note Leo wrote to Piper right before he left.

"Now," Chronos stood in the empty field with her, the same campsite she visited so many years ago to retrieve the power of the Olympians. "Do you remember all of your rules?"

Time had rules too, which she found annoying. She wished there was a spell that would have fixed everything with a few words, but no, she had to do it the manual way.

"Yes," she said in a bored tone.

"Then tell me them." He put his arms behind his back like a general ordering a squad of soldiers to drop and give him twenty.

"Rule one, no disrupting actions in the worlds you visit," she heard them a thousand times, they were forever engraved into her mind. "Rule two, never touch or contaminate the surroundings in another world. Rule three, you may not be seen. Rule four, no altering events that happen around you, no matter the consequence. Rule five, always carry a token of your own world so you may return. Rule six, never lose the watch."

"Good girl," Chronos clapped a few times and praised her like a well behaved puppy. "You have the watch?"

She held up her wrist in response. It was gold, like everything else associated with Chronos, with little suns and moons for hands that didn't make sense to her when she first got it. Now she knows it was meant for the cycles of the celestial bodies and exact dates. She also learned about a turner to rewind or fast-forward, but only by a few months or years.

"You have your token?"

She held out the paper with writing and then tucked it safely back in her bag. Chronos reminded her that when she repaired the timeline, she would just have to hold it and think of her home, and she would return back to the field in this life.

"How do I know if I come back?" Annabeth asked.

"You'll feel a slight jolt when we leave." Chronos said. "It means you've returned as we're leaving; clean and simple. You'll only miss about seven seconds of your life here, and you will be incapable of aging while you travel. Don't get caught up in life while you're there. Remember your mission."

"Remember the parallel lines," Annabeth responded; a promise.

"You'll probably have to travel to several different parallels before you find the right one. You'll know when you arrive at the right moment." He smiled, a genuine smile. "You ready to become a Time Lord?"

"I'm Doctor Who," she smiled back and took one last deep breath of the air in this universe. It wouldn't be the same when she got back.

"Good bye and good luck, Annabeth." Chronos waved his hand, and placed it over her forehead. The only way she will be in contact with the god is through her mind, and he would know every thought she had and see what is going on around her and in her mind.

The world went dark, and she zoomed through empty space.

* * *

_3:07 _

_7 seconds and counting_

* * *

_One_

* * *

As Chronos said, it took only about seven seconds to travel. Halfway through, she felt a jolt run through her. _Guess I make it out alive,_ she thought to herself.

She blinked a few times, and realized she was sitting outside in hot weather. First thing on list of things to do; cast the spell.

Annabeth doubted she would need the spell paper, she had it memorized. She chanted divine words, making her invisible and passable like a ghost. She couldn't touch the outside world and it couldn't touch her.

_Annabeth? Are you there?_

Chronos was probing her mind, looking for the right frequency so he could stay in contact with her.

"I'm here," she answered aloud. She was also silent. As if she didn't exist.

_Good, you made it. I never doubted you for a moment._

"Ha ha..." She looked around. "Where am I?"

_I can't see. Turn around some more._

She went in a complete circle, and heard strange far-off voices. "Who's that?"

_Go check it out._

Annabeth hesitated. _They can't see you, just go find out where we are on the timeline!_

"Fine, fine, okay."

She walked out into the opening where she heard the voices, and was confused by the sight in front of her.

First, in the center of the scene, was an old man rocking a little baby in his arms. A young woman stood by his side, probably the baby's mother, looking at the old man and her child with moderate concern.

Then, off to the side, somewhat invisible and at first Annabeth wasn't sure if they were actually real...was Leo. And Hazel.

"_Mi_ _bebito_, Leo!" The old man raised the tiny baby in his arms, and the baby cooed. The ghostly-looking Leo off to the side was staring at the other woman, and he stared at her like he was about to cry. Hazel floated next to him, staring at the old man like he had come back from the dead. The old man looked familiar...and then Annabeth realized it was Sammy Valdez, the ghost she met at the summoning. This must've been Leo's old hometown.

The old man talked to Leo, and Annabeth made her way over to the ghost Leo. He didn't see her, and neither does Hazel, and they stare right through her and keep watching the scene in front of them.

Annabeth put out her hand to touch Leo, prove he was real, and then she got sucked through him. Now she stood on the Argo, and Leo and Hazel were sitting next to each other and holding onto each other's hands.

Hazel was crying. She looked lost and confused. Leo looked like his entire life has come back all at once and slapped him in the face.

"Hello, Hazel Levesque," he said in a gravelly voice.

Annabeth put her hand around the watch, because she knows what happened next. The attack on the ship, then even after that her trip to find the Mark of Athena (she doesn't need to relive that) and the eventual fall to Tartarus, etc, etc...

She sped up a few years. Time passed all around her, chords of Leo's life all strung out around her. She tapped one that looked more recent and was sucked into it, suddenly back at Camp Halfblood.

"Annabeth," someone called her name.

Annabeth turned around and realized she was looking at herself; she looked younger, but with more shadows under her eyes and the same grim expression. "Yes, Leo?"

Leo floundered into her cabin, leaning casually on the doorway just to annoy the other-Annabeth. "Percy says he just got a message from Olympus. Something about a quest?"

"That sounds wonderful," parallel universe Annabeth lifted up some heavy material and dropped it in a heap. "I'm not interested."

"But they called for the Greek heroes to go. Percy's in, Piper's in, I'm in if Piper's in, so you are too."

"I'd rather not," she dropped more supplies in a pile. "I think I'll sit this one out."

"Sorry, you don't have a choice." He picked her up and carried her away, and she shouted curses at him. "Put me down this instant, Leo Valdez!"

"Nope! Percy ordered me to refuse all requests and carry you to the ride we're taking. _Viva a la Heroica_!"

He laughed, and time-traveling Annabeth slammed her hand down on the watch. All time stopped around her.

_You okay?_

"Yeah," she swallowed. "This just...it seems all so _real_."

_It is real. It's another parallel, everything is either the same, or completely opposite. You haven't even seen the universe where you're a brunette! Talk about messed up things._

"I have brown hair in an alternate universe?"

_Um...yeah, let's not talk about that. This is a far-future world, you're missing many things from his life. I figured you'd want to see this one first, see if it was fixable without much traveling. Do you wish to fast forward?_

"Yes," she wiped something wet from her eye without realizing she had been crying. "I want to move forward."

Time resumed, and now she was sitting at the campsite. Leo and the other Annabeth were arguing over who should leave to meet Asclepius, and she stormed off into the forest. Leo glanced at Piper. "You keep watch?"

"I have no other choice," she said as she wrapped up her injured hand in a bandage. "Have fun on your mission."

"I'll come back, nothing's going to happen to me."

"I'm not worried you will. Now go!"

Annabeth spun the dial on the watch slowly. She had to come in at the right moment...

She watched in horror as for the second time in her life, Leo was gored to death. He just stood there and let it happen, and she didn't understand it.

"Chronos? This isn't the right dimension."

_I told you there was the chance we'd have to look a while before we found the right one. I was just looking for similar pasts to present, you know. Hmm...I think I've found another, but it's a past._

"What's that mean?"

_We're ahead of it's time. We'll have to go and wait for it to catch up. You'll have to keep track of Leo for the next 19 years, do you understand?_

"Nineteen years?"

_Yes, and don't make contact! You'll have to relive every moment of Leo's life up until this point. Are you ready?_

Annabeth felt bad about intruding Leo's personal space- or, uh, life. "I'm ready."

The world glowed brilliant white and became a giant swirl of milky bottom in a bowl, and she was taken back once more.

* * *

_Two_

* * *

This time she was sitting in a hospital room, and the woman she recognized earlier as Leo's mother, sat on the bed with her hands folded in her lap.

A nurse in blue hands her a tiny bundle, and she accepted it gratefully. "Oh, Leo," she smiled at him and tickled his chin. "_Hola. Bienvenidas a viva_..."

Leo aged in time, as she watched. She saw _Tia Callida_, in all her trickery, placed Leo in a blazing fire. Annabeth witnessed the moment when Leo doodled his first design for the Argo in crayon and then the wind ripped it from his hands and blew away.

She first hand witnessed the moment when Leo's life was ruined, at the workshop when he was outside while his mother was left to the wrath of Gaea.

Annabeth hadn't been expecting it. She'd seen Leo's mother go inside, and then Leo freaking out. She stopped breathing when someone rose out of the ground and walked over to Leo.

Leo tried to save her. His hands caught fire, and Gaea smiled a cold, cruel smile, as the flames climbed over his head, and he screamed and tried to run away-

_Annabeth, focus, you're losing yourself._

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?"

_You're becoming involved with the situation. Anytime you do this will cause you to fade. That is why you can not touch the outside world._

"Ugh, but you expect me to watch this?"

_Yes. Now pay attention, there's a role you have to play in here._

"What are you talking about?"

_You may not touch the outside world, but someone is going to have to alert the authorities to come rescue Leo, aren't they? Emergency situations bend magic and allow some changes to be made._

"You can't be serious."

_On the contrary, without you, he will never be found. You will have to do this in every parallel we visit to keep the cycle going. Since we do it here, it will be done everywhere else as well._

"But why?"

_It's necessary for the time to lap and be the same as the others, don't question it! Trust, Annabeth, remember!_

Annabeth ran down the street. "No touching the outside world, okay, then what?"

_Anonymously call a payphone and say there's a fire at the Valleytown Corp. Workshop. Don't give your name. Only seven words, that is your limit in each word. Use them wisely._

"Why seven?"

_Don't ask questions!_

"Ugh, you're annoying."

Annabeth reached a payphone, and used the trick she learned that allowed her to reach into the properties of objects without touching them to make an interaction.

The dial rung forever when she has called 911. "_Hello, what is your emergency?_"

"Fire at Valleytown Corp. Workshop," Annabeth said calmly and clearly. "Send help."

_1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7._

"_Excuse me, may I know who I'm speaking to?_"

Annabeth hung up.

_Good job, now run back and find him. We have to follow him wherever he goes._

"Yeah, I got that."

Annabeth rushed back to the billowing smoke and remained invisible, even when the paramedics came. A set of firefighters rushed in and carried Leo away from the burning and collapsing factory, she followed them.

A little while later, young Leo stirred and a kind paramedic tried to explain to him the fire, and how his mother didn't make it. He looked like he was about to cry.

(_Which he probably is, on the inside._)

_Remember your duty, Annabeth. You'll have to travel alone for a while._

"What? Why? Where are you going?"

_My magic will still reach you, but I am too far from our current time to remain in it. As you come closer to the present I will rejoin you._

"Can't I fast forward?"

_No, we've been through this, time doesn't work that way. No matter how much you speed it up or stop it-_

"-_'it keeps moving_.' I've heard you say it a million times. I'll wait then."

_Stick close to Leo. I trust you. We'll meet soon._

An empty silence filled her mind.

* * *

Annabeth walked beside Leo for the next few years. She saw Leo and Piper before Jason existed (and yes, there was a kiss on the dorm roof that night with the meteor shower, and it was definitely not Jason), Jason coming and when the storm spirits had attacked them by the Grand Canyon. She jumped after Leo when he was thrown off the edge, her hands momentarily coming in contact with his and helping him grab hold of the wall.

(_Without knowing it, she'd saved his life in many other parallels too._)

She saw herself once more, threatening and demanding to know where Percy was. Annabeth felt a pang on her chest to remember all that she had sacrificed in the quest, and how she would have to rewatch it all again.

There was the claiming of Leo, finding the bunker (at least now she knew how he had found Festus this time) and the beginning of his quest. The visit with Khione, running into the cyclops (she was actually quite impressed with that) and even when he fell off Festus and lost the dragon. All he suffered, all his sorrow, she witnessed all his moments and wondered why the Fates had chosen to pick on Leo Valdez, the ordinary boy with extraordinary power and a cruel past (_present, and future_). Because Leo Valdez was simply the extra, the red shirt on the stage of a play, the pawn to be sacrificed at his own expense to save the lives of others.

(_Like he did for her_

_the red shirt_

_the background_

_now she's taking his part_

_and realizing how heavy the load._)

The battle with the giant, how he almost was killed, and Piper stepped in his way and stabbed it from behind. She was angry, and powerful, because _no one messes_ with Piper McLean.

(_Leo seems to acknowledge this too._)

When Leo tried to free Hera from her cage, his battle with Khione and all his fiery glory, and then the return to camp and the beginning of the Argo.

The months passed, and she saw herself more the few times Leo passed her. She looked horrible back then, and confused, because Percy had been such a big and important part of her life, and having him gone has ripped the world out from underneath her. She was strong, she knew, but she was still cracking on the outside and chipping away like peeling paint.

The final stressful days of the ship's completion (and she even was there to watch the time Leo almost blew up all of the camp because of a stupid mahogany table) and the official sailing off to the Roman Camp.

The moment when Leo was possessed by the eidolon, his jaw and shoulders slacked as he pushed Octavian aside and started firing cannons onto Camp Jupiter. Some things are just not fixable.

Annabeth saw the moment where Leo and Hazel have a flashback to Sammy Valdez, Leo's great grandfather, and then when Leo was still a little child. The same time where Annabeth had first scoped into the universes. The attack of the giant shrimp monster, Leo falling underwater (Annabeth had to cast an air spell around herself so she wouldn't drown) and meeting Camp Fish blood. (Now she knows what they did down there.)

And finally Rome, where her other self parts ways, and Leo, Hazel, and Frank take a very lost tour through Rome. The museum. The eidolons. Falling into Gaea's trap, the eidolons trying to kill Hazel and Frank. Archimedes sphere, the fortune cookie from Nemesis (a price, she realized, he would be eternally paying for) and saving them. Then the plan to rescue the others.

When they got back on the ship and ran for the arena where Percy, Piper, and Jason were fighting a (bad) battle with the twins, and Nico di Angelo was barely surviving, they blow it into the sky.

And finally when they break through to find Annabeth, looking so pale and terrified from the horrors of a spider.

When her and Percy fall to Tartarus, slipping down the edge...

Finding the doors of Death, Leo ramming his beloved ship into the side of the doors to keep them open. Frank onboard with him, trying to help the ship stay together when the two of them are sucked in. The others are watching from the ground, paralyzed, as the Greek trireme is closed out like a blinking light and vanishes (lost forever) in Tartarus (They only ever found Festus' head, and a few scraps of what might have been Buford).

When Leo pushed Frank out the other side, dropping deeper into Tartarus to find Percy and Annabeth, grabbed hold of them and hoisted them up to the ground above. The final battle, where everything seemed lost, and then...

It was too much to handle, and Annabeth was well aware of this. Her essence begun to float, drifting between her own past and the things she is watching. Just as the war has ended, she heard the voice of Chronos; _Annabeth? ANNABETH! Stay there, I'm coming to get you!_

"What...what's going on?"

_The magic there is too strong, the gods sense your intrusion, they are trying to sap you away! I'm getting you out right now, you hear me? This isn't the right dimension, I've done a round check. Nothing can be changed here, now get out!_

"I can't..." her fingers fumbled as she tried to reach for the scroll of divine words. Instead she grabbed the note Leo wrote so long ago, crumbling in her hands-

(_Leo's coughing, choking, while the god Chronos is rushing through space to find him. Leo reaches out his hand, grasping onto the god of time and change, and in a flash they vanish from the war, all the memories-_

_Leo's life is flashing everywhere, but this time it's him who has been living Annabeth's life, following her, trying to fix his own mistakes-_

_"Annabeth!" He screamed._)

"Leo!" she screamed into empty air.

* * *

She opened her eyes and looked around and noticed she's in a white reset room, the little pockets of space where time is unmoving and peaceful; where Chronos had put her for the time being.

"I felt your connection fading." Chronos sat down next to her while she stood up. She felt strangely light headed, maybe from the excessive travel, or the fact she saw too many horrible things in so little time. A relapse of everything bad.

"What happened?" Her book bag leaned against the bed next to her.

"I'm not sure," Chronos admitted. "It could have been a faulty parallel. Sometimes there's too weak of a line to keep it matching the others, and small things are changed. This one was right on the edge of collapsing anyways."

"You mean that it-"

"It doesn't exist anymore. There were too many flaws, so I had to erase it. It's okay."

She felt sick to her stomach. "But-"

"Annabeth, life on each parallel is the same. None of the people there were any more than just figments. It doesn't matter back on your own world."

Annabeth stood up, putting on her bag. "Where are we traveling to next?"

"A closer parallel. It's only lagging a little, so you'll be able to fast forward in half time. You'll be able to skip the first nine years of Leo's life."

"Good. Those were a little...concerning."

"Ready to go?"

Annabeth breathed in deeply and clenched her fist, closing her eyes. "I'm Doctor Who."

She was gone before she could blink again.

* * *

_Three_

* * *

Chronos was right about missing the first nine years of Leo's life, because when she arrived, he was in the process of being chased by a police officer. Her head was still pounding as she chased after them, and she watched as Leo ran into a crowd with the officer right on his heels.

Annabeth found herself sandwiched between the two, unsure of how to fit, when the police officer ran into her. She slammed into the ground and he tripped over her. Leo dodged under arms and vanished into the street.

The officer growled and cursed. "You let him get away!"

"Terribly sorry," Annabeth used her two of seven words. When the officer turned away, she quickly cast the vanish spell.

_Annabeth? Annabeth, what happened?_

"The spell wore off. I bumped into someone."

_Ugh! You have to jump ahead and fix it now, quickly, before it creates it's own parallel!_

"I thought you said I had to wait a little while before jumping?"

_If you don't fix it soon it will be rippled, disrupting all other parallels. There's only a small chance you'll be unstuck in time if you do this, caught between worlds and floating for eternity._

"Gee, thanks, that's really supportive."

_Come on, Annabeth! You need to trust me._

"Okay, fine. I'm heading there now..." Her hand reached for the gold watch and she spun the dial. "You said to check the future first to see if there's any major change before going back to make even more ripples."

_Hurry!_

Annabeth released the dial, and she floated for a second in empty time (there was no way to describe that sensation- it was like sinking in water, except heavier and lighter at the same time, almost as if swimming through dimensions) before her feet slammed into solid ground.

Piper was there, skipping up the forest hill to what looked like the Bunker. The bunker door was wide open, and she hopped inside. "Leo?" She called. Annabeth followed her, invisible and unable to make a sound.

"Boo!" Leo jumped down from a rafter, attached to a spring that bounced a few times before he unhooked it and climbed down, grinning.

"Valdez!" Piper scowled. "I told you to sto-"

Leo came out of nowhere, grabbing her from behind and tickling her mercilessly. Her scowl become a laugh, and screamed for him to stop. Her legs twisted and grabbed him, throwing him onto the spare couch lounging for comfort in the middle of the bunker- and-

"Oh my gods!" Jason soared in, jumping up to a rafter and then piloting down. "Leo, what happened to treating '_your queen with respect!?'_"

Leo grinned at him crazily, grabbed Piper and flipped her over, tackled her to the couch and kissed her.

Piper giggled, and Leo was still laughing, and Annabeth looked at Jason for any sign of reaction. They should have- _Piper and Jason_ existed back then, not _Piper and Leo_- but what-?

Jason rolled his eyes. "I feel like the third wheel now," he complained.

Leo got off Piper, and she kicked off one of her shoes and hit Jason in the chest with it. "That's because we don't need a tricycle, unless you want a threesome." She wiggled her eyebrows.

Jason put his hands over his head. "Nope, I've seen enough of you two in action to know _you're both friggin insane_ and Jason Grace does _not_ want any part of it."

"That's because you want a part of Reyna," Leo wiggled into a rope and yanked it, pulling him twenty feet in the air, hung upside down where he was welding Festus' head to the mast of the Argo.

Jason momentarily turned red while Piper laughed louder, falling off the couch and clutching her stomach while she dissolved into snorts and giggles.

"Hey, just for giggles," Leo called up from the rafter. "I think I need a big mighty strong son of Jupiter to help me lift this giant piece of metal. Help, _por favor_?"

"I'm coming," Jason grumbled. "Wait one second."

Annabeth spun the dial again and cut off the scene.

This time Leo and Piper were sitting next to each other on the Argo. She didn't know if it this was happening before or after the trip to Rome or Greece, because it was dark in Leo's cabin and the only light in the room came from the red lava lamp sitting on the desk opposite Leo.

"I'm scared," Piper whispered in the darkness of the shadows.

"Me too," Leo pulled her into his arms. "You just don't have to let others know that."

"What about you?"

"Piper, I'm _always_ scared. Scared something would happen to you. That's why today I didn't want to let you out of my sight."

"I can protect myself."

"That's not what I'm worried about," Leo picked up her chin with his hands. "I'm afraid something will happen when I'm not there and it will be all my fault. I don't think- I would never be able to forgive myself."

Piper must have started crying, because he wiped her tears away gently with his thumb. "Now now, no crying. We'll just finish this quest and return home, and we'll all make it back. I pr-"

She put a finger to his lips. "Don't promise anything," she whispered quietly. "'_An oath to keep with final breath.'_ I don't want that to be your final breath."

Leo smiled and the pale red light from the lava lamp glittered on his teeth. "I don't want it to be yours either."

Piper rubbed her shoulders, and placed her head in the crook of Leo's neck. He kissed her neck, and they both sat in silence for a few minutes.

Suddenly, a fuming Coach Hedge burst into the door, screaming "_NEVER ON MY LIFE_!" and "_IRRESPONSIBLE_!" and "_VALDEZ_!", "_MCLEAN_!", "_YOU TWO SHOULD KNOW BETTER!_"

Leo jumped in the air and fell onto the floor, and Piper shrieked and tumbled out of the blankets onto him. The sound of the others thundering down the hallway to see the commotion brought much activity onto the ship.

Percy rushed in the room with his sword in hand and turned on the lightswitch. Needless to say, he looked confused to see a blanket-cocooned Piper, a shirtless and blushing Leo, and a ballistic Coach who looked on the verge of taking out his baseball bat and smashing everything in sight.

Percy awkwardly turned, announced "I'm going to bed," and walked out.

Annabeth twisted the watch and was taken from the boat.

* * *

She saw Piper sitting alone near a double door as dark as night with many inscriptions of magic all around the edges. She was holding herself and crying.

Hazel was standing next to her, her head still up but tears fell from her face wordlessly. Jason flew out from above the cave, ran straight for Piper and hugged her. She sobbed into his shirt, and he squeezed her for comfort, one of his own tears sliding down his cheek.

Nico di Angelo sat crouched near the opening, and Hazel hurriedly walked over to her brother.

"Are they alright?" she demanded.

Nico sat up straighter. "They're alive," he said. "I think they've found Percy and Annabeth."

"How do we get them out?"

"We don't."

"What do you mean?"

"There's no way I can open the doors again, and the only hope they'll survive is if Gaea takes them hostage...I suspect she's already done so with Percy and Annabeth."

"Then how do we get Frank and Leo?"

"They'll have to be lucky," Nico stood up. "If they're down there, there's a chance they can make it to Gaea's lair and sneak out that way. We need two teams, Hazel. One in Tartarus, one out here. It will take both sides to defeat Gaea. Or I could try to make a deal with our brother..."

Hazel furrowed her brow. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"Come on, we have to find shelter. And Coach. I don't know where that satyr could have gone..."

The watch propelled her even further. Leo was lying on the ground, a trickle of blood coming from his mouth. She heard the shouts of her friends running through the tunnel, Frank being supported by Jason and Hazel, and Piper ran in with her arms out.

"Leo!" She cried, grabbed him by the shirt and yanking him upright. "Oh my gods, he's not breathing!"

Annabeth frowned, trying to remember this part. She was pretty sure that her and Percy would be walking out to join them any minute-

A pale Annabeth and sickly looking Percy are walking with Nico, who was keeping Percy upright from falling over from exhaustion.

Piper started crying hysterically, and she shoved Jason away when he tried to hold her. "He's gone!" she sobbed. "Give him back, give him back! Take me!"

A few seconds later, Frank staggered and fell. He grasped for Hazel's hand, and collapsed to the ground. She screamed, clutching his shirt, before she too keeled over and lay motionless on the floor.

Nico shouted "Get out of here, get out!" and he pulled Jason away from the room, running back to grab Piper. She fought and kicked him, and Percy came over to help pull her from the room,

The two of them carry her from the room, kicking and screaming, while Annabeth and Jason waited for them on the other side.

When they exited, the entire room glowed dangerously bright, and there loud voices talking that none of them could understand. When it stopped glowing, Piper dashed back in.

Frank was sitting up, holding onto Hazel, and Leo had rolled over onto his side and stared up at the ceiling. Piper let out a relieved sob, and tackled him. He smiled weakly, and groaned when he tried to stand up.

"What happened?" Percy demanded.

"Leo made a bad deal with Thanatos," Nico was so quiet, even back then. "He exchanged his own soul for Percy, Annabeth, and Frank to escape from Tartarus, but my brother took his soul and the last two people to enter the house of Hades. I think Hades stepped in the way and made him close the deal, but as to why...?"

"Probably some sacred vow," Percy said vaguely. "I wouldn't know anything about that."

Something yanked Annabeth away from the quest, and she was back at Camp Halfblood where Romans and Greeks alike were slowly rebuilding the camp site. Leo was sitting next to Piper, a bandage wrapped around his chest and Piper re-tying a wrap over his forehead. He complained greatly, and only allowed her to touch his chest when she kissed him and he relented.

Jason was helping repair the infirmary Leo was sitting in. "You look..." Jason paused to find the right word.

"Like cow shit," Leo smiled teasingly. "Trust me, I've felt better too."

The infirmary brightness faded away and Annabeth saw herself sitting in the forest where Leo is about to be gored, and her own parallel pushed him out of the way and Leo, watched Annabeth die this time instead.

(_So many parallels,_

_so instead of just her bearing the weight_

_she feels lighter_

_because now so does he_

_and suddenly all the visions_

_all make sense_

_this was supposed to happen_

_to show her_

_what would have happened_

_had the tides been turned_

_and the tables reversed_

_remember the parallel lines_

_because they always follow one another._)

* * *

She had to go back and fix it. Even after seeing the happiness in Leo that no one had ever seen, when he got married, even had his first child, but it was another universe. She _had_ to fix it.

It was with a heavy heart she turned back the watch and went back to the moment when her spell wore off, casting a long range spell over where she thought her invisible form is.

Leo and Piper (or _Piper&Leo_ became _Piper&Leo&Jason_ and then _Piper&Jason_) never happened.

(_She wonders why she couldn't have left it_

_a Leo somewhere could have been happy_

_but it's not here_

_not there_

_not anywhere_.)

The officer never tripped, he grabbed Leo and dragged him off to a car and back to a station to be sent back to the social services.

* * *

_Four_

* * *

"It has to be this one, it has to."

She watched again in another attempt as Leo is speared, and laid dying while his blood poured out.

_Keep trying. We'll find the right parallel eventually._

* * *

_Five_

* * *

This time the clock was set ahead, and Annabeth watched as Piper was now thirty, thirty one, and thirty two, when she woke up one morning with her throat slit by her own dagger in her drunken insanity.

Now she not only mourned Leo, but also her friend (_who should have let this go, but she remained tied and fell with him_.)

Annabeth saw herself growing older too, having children of her own, and left before she can watch herself die. There were few things Annabeth Chase can not handle, and one of them was seeing her own fate.

The wrong dimension, again, and each time she lived through Leo's twisted cruel life, she understood him a bit better and left only the lingering question:

_Why him?_

* * *

_Six_

* * *

In this, she was close, but so far off. Leo and Piper were eating ice cream, licking the tops off and showing off their ice cream tongues, laughing and smearing ice cream on one another.

Her chest felt even heavier when she watched Leo die for what seemed like the millionth time, because her pain was never ending and her guilt was only increasing.

Annabeth watched him be buried again, her guilt weighing more and more each time.

(_This is not where she wanted to be at all_.)

* * *

_Seven_

* * *

"This is your seventh dimension. Do you wish to cross?"

"Yes."

(_Here goes nothing._)

She twisted the watch and raced through time, spiraling into a further out dimension.

She landed right in the clearing. Annabeth looked around, and saw herself and Leo passing through for the first time. Leo was talking about how him and Piper would have amazingly awesome sexy babies, and her own sharp "_Shut up!_" echoed off the trees.

Annabeth followed them. Across the bridge, up the mountain, the palm readings, just like she had done all the times before. The trip back down, Leo retrieving his tool belt and the potion, back to the forest.

She didn't want to say. To watch him die one more time. To relive each moment of guilt she's even carried, she doesn't want, didn't

_Annabeth? Are you okay?_

"I'm fine." Her mind was spinning into overdrive. Doesn't want to-

(_Remember the parallel lines_

_You saved my life, I'd do the same for you_

_You deserved to live_

_remember the parallel lines_

_the past can't be changed_

_Not your fault_

_He doesn't blame you, but I do_

_I think I might have loved him_

_remember the parallel_

_the parallels_

_the numbers 7 and 3 will be the most important_

_don't let logic rule your heart_

_Leo Valdez_

_Leo deserved a second chance._)

Her thoughts suddenly clicked into place of what she had to do. This could be fixed. She could fix it, everything could return to normal...

Chronos heard the tension in her thoughts.

_Annabeth, no!_

"It's my choice," she said, taking out her sheet of paper of spells. Then her one wrinkled sheet of paper, the one with Leo's last words and his love to Piper. She would hold onto that.

"Tell Percy I'm sorry," she said, her hands braced for impact. Her feet were light and swift, and the only pounding she heard was the counted beats of her heart.

_Annabeth Chase was not afraid to die._

Leo ripped other Annabeth out of the way, and the mare of Diomedes charged forward, it's head still bent to kill, to murder-

(_Her life flashed before her eyes_

_maybe it was his life too_

_Meeting Percy for the first time_

_Meeting Leo Valdez_

_who, even though she wanted to deny it_

_changed her life in ways she didn't understand_

_Walking down the aisle to marry Percy_

_and maybe Leo watching a radiant Piper McLean walking down another_

_it's all the parallels_

_between what was_

_what is_

_and what could have been_

_but there's no time for that now_

_because this is_

_the_

_end_

_of_

_the girl_

_named_

_Annabeth Chase_.)

* * *

_She doesn't slow down when she becomes part of the other world and the mare's horns pass right through her chest._

* * *

_February 29th_

_3:07 PM_

_15 seconds and counting_

* * *

She swam through vast emptiness, undisturbed.

Floating. Lightness.

She breathed.

And opened her eyes, because she should be dead. She was killed, wasn't she?

Then...why was she sitting in a forest? Her backpack was gone, along with the list of spells, but the note from Leo still in her hand, and she unfisted her hands to look at it.

_Chronos_? she called into her mind.

No one answered.

"Chronos?" She tried again out loud. "Am I back?"

Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she took it out.

She had left at 3:07 in the afternoon, she knew that for a fact.

Her phone still said 3:07, counting up the seconds to 3:08. She had never left. _Or had she_? _What was going on_? He had never mentioned any of this in his plan-?

"Hey," a voice called behind her.

Annabeth jumped, looked back and saw who it was.

Leo had aged. He was probably their age now, stuck between worlds but continuing the life he had. He looked like he aged seven years, grown a little taller, and even a light five-o'clock shadow had extended from his upper cheeks down to his chin. It was a little strange seeing an unshaved Leo, but she could deal with that. He was still wearing his suspenders and the same shirt he had worn the day he had vanished from her life forever; it was almost as if nothing had changed.

Her heart stopped, because everything was normal, and her debt was paid. She felt light, so weightless, no more bearing heaviness on her chest like before. She broke into a run, collapsing the few feet between them and hugged him.

Leo welcomed here with open arms, but he looked surprised. "Oh, why the hugging?" He asked, and she started crying. Happiness, or relief, or just simply the fact he was alive, and things could be like they were.

_Seven years._

Leo whispered "Your hair smells nice." And she started laughing, just like she had all those years ago when he saved her from fire and said exactly the same thing. It was Leo, he was alive, and breathing, the familiar scent of burning and fire wood and motor oil that he usually had.

She stepped back and held him at arms length. "You've grown," she said and she's not sure if she's crying still or laughing. Maybe both.

Leo raised an eyebrow. "Have I? Hey, whatever happened to the quest? I remember we found Asclepius..." He frowned. "Uhm...I don't remember the rest. Where's Percy? Piper?"

Annabeth stepped back. "You don't remember?"

"I..." He made a concentrating face. "It seems fuzzy. Did I hit my head bad?"

"Leo," Annabeth said in an almost inaudible whisper. "That quest was seven years ago. You're twenty six now, not nineteen. We finished that quest ages ago."

Leo stumbled back, putting his hands to his head and walking in a circle. "Seven years ago?" He looked down and yelped "I don't remember being this tall!"

Annabeth cracked a tiny laugh, and ran to hug him again. "I've been looking for you for seven years," she started shaking. "Piper's been losing her mind without you."

"You look like you've already lost your mind," Leo added.

Annabeth took him by the hand and shoved in the note he had written to Piper seven years ago. "This was the only thing keeping her grounded, and even with that she tried to slip away from us. You have to come back and fix her."

"Fixing things is my specialty," Leo grinned.

Annabeth hugged him again, and he looked at her questioningly. "I'm just so glad you're back," she said. "I'm glad I have my friend back."

"Where did I go?" He smirked.

"You vanished...I thought you had died. You saved my life back in the forest. You died, and...then I couldn't find you again. Wait until I tell you all the things I did to get you back here..."

"I bet my adventures can top that," Leo smiled and they walked off from the forest to head home.

Annabeth laughed at the challenge. "Good luck with that."

* * *

He stood outside Piper's apartment, looking scared and trying to innocently sneak away from Annabeth's grasp.

Annabeth grabbed him by the collar and yanked him up the stairs, right to the front door. They hadn't visited Camp yet, but that was next on Annabeth's list. She had one more friend to visit before she exposed Leo Valdez to the whole world.

She knocked on the door once, twice, three times; and the drunk ramblings of Piper answered her. "I'm coming, sheesh! What's so important? I'm not in the mood for buying Girl Scout Cookies right now!"

"Open the door!" Annabeth yelled back.

"Oh great, now Annabeth's here," Piper grumbled and undid the lock on the other side. She opened the door, half talking to herself. She held a green hairbrush in her hands, but her hair was a rats nest and looked like she made no effort to even use the brush. "Great, well, I'm alive, now you can leave."

Annabeth stepped inside. "No, I'm thinking I'll stay a little longer."

Piper rolled her eyes, streams of mascara still evident on her face. Her apartment was a mess (as usual) with clothes all over the furniture, bottles of wine stocked up in random places, even some interesting things shoved in corners that Annabeth didn't want to know about. Leo's toolbelt was still hanging from the opposite wall, a permanent fixture and decoration to her tiny living space. Her iPod was plugged in next to the television and blasting out random sad songs; from "_The One that Got Away_" by Katy Perry, "_The Great Escape_" by P!nk, etc, etc.

She glared at Annabeth under dark eyelashes and drawled lazily "Are you guys here to take me off to a psycho ward? I'm okay with that, I can't see for shit-" And that was when she saw Leo.

He walked in the room while she was ranting. She stopped, and the hairbrush in her hand fell and clattered to the floor. Leo smiled sheepishly, and said "What's up, Beauty Queen?"

Piper gasped, staring at his face, as if she was trying to decide if she was hallucinating or not. Annabeth just stood to the side, smiling broadly.

She looked like she was dazed, coming out of a strange dream and just waking up. Piper took a hesitant step, then she took another, and flung herself at Leo and punched him in the face.

Leo staggered backwards, clutching his nose and fell backwards into the door, which slammed shut with the full force of him falling. Piper clenched her fists, breathing heavily, and inquired in a steely (and deadly) calm voice "Where have you been?"

"What the hell was that for?" Leo demanded as he held onto his nose while a few drops of blood dribbled onto his shirt and into his fingers. "You think I know? I woke up a few hours ago in the middle of some gods damned forest with Annabeth standing there, talking to someone who wasn't there. I don't remember anything, and she told me it's been seven years. I don't feel like it's been seven years, I certainly don't remember growing for seven years, and I'm confused, Piper. I'm also scared, because she told me that you wanted to let go because of me, and I don't want anyone to die because of something I-"

He started rambling, and within seconds she cut him off, grabbed his shirt and kissed him. Leo stops talking and responds, leaving Annabeth to awkwardly stand like a third wheel.

She cleared her throat, but neither of them make any notion that they acknowledged her, so she said "Uhm...Okay. I'm gonna..._go_, then. Call me when you guys are..._done_."

Still, she couldn't keep from smiling on the way out. She knows neither of them will be done for a while, because seven years is a long time.

* * *

_Long After_

* * *

_(It looked like Leo Valdez got his happily ever after, after all.)_

* * *

(_Time doesn't matter anymore._)

They're married in less than a year (and she can't say she's surprised), and two years later Annabeth was informed Piper would be expecting her first child.

(_Not that she can blame them; they've got seven years of catching up to do._)

Annabeth had her own child now, a little girl with sharp intelligent grey eyes and Percy's black hair (which is always in pigtails) and she was the biggest sweetheart; Chiron has a soft spot for her (and she hasn't even begun camp.)

Percy was always there, and he never asked her the three things she did to bring Leo back. Most people just accepted it, while a few others were curious and (concerned), wondering how Annabeth had ever managed to do it. Also the fact Leo didn't remember anything between those seven years made people suspicious, but he caught onto modern things quickly.

Piper was sitting in one of the pool chairs at Annabeth's house, over on the little balcony overlooking the pool that they had squeezed into the yard. Percy had Andrea in little floaties and giggling and kicking her arms around while he laughed and pushed her around the pool.

Annabeth kept a watchful eye while Piper glanced through a fashion magazine (Since when did she read those? Must be an Aphrodite thing, and she probably doesn't realize it) and flipped through the pages with disinterest.

"Calm down," Piper chided from the lounge chair. "Percy's the most adept with water, he's not going to let his daughter drown."

"I'm not worried about that," Annabeth answered her. "I'm just a little on edge."

Piper smiled and put down the magazine, and Leo's arms came from behind her to rub her belly and kiss her forehead. He grinned in his red swim shorts, and then he raced down the lawn and jumped into the pool with a loud "_CANNONBALLL_!"

Annabeth chuckled. There are some things that even time couldn't change about Leo.

Then the frame blinked and froze, the water stopped falling from Leo's splash, Piper was forming a word and remained in place, and Percy was tossing Andrea in the air and she remained above his hands. The world had been stuck; nothing moved.

Annabeth sat up automatically. "Chronos?"

The god of time materialized next to her, looking like he aged greatly. Instead of the young man she first traveled with, he was older, more crippled looking with wrinkles around his eyes. He held a long walking cane in one of his hands, and a strange galactic looking map in the other that was covered to the corners with stars and dimensions.

"Hello, Annabeth," he said wearily. "I'm afraid I don't have much time."

She raised an eyebrow. "What happened to you?"

He didn't seem insulted by the question. "Time wears down the traveler greatly," Chronos sat down invisibly on a nearby lounge chair. "I'm surprised you were able to bear children; most times those who travel find afterwards they become infertile."

"Guess I got lucky then."

"Perhaps," Chronos said. "Or Fate just let it slide this time. Just like it did for your friend," he motioned to Leo with a jerk of his head. "What you did was very brave." He sounded impressed; surprised even, that a mortal could impress a god.

"You mean I didn't screw up any time lines?"

"Not that I know of. When you released your protection, I cast my own upon you. Only a true crosser can sacrifice their own life to save another," He crossed his legs. "I was hoping that maybe someday, you could replace me."

Annabeth didn't say anything. She tapped her wrist where her old gold watch had remained on her ever since she got back (invisible, most of the time), and handed it to the god of time. He looked at her curiously before taking it and turning it over in his hands.

"You would turn down power?" He asked, a small smirk playing on his lips. "That doesn't sound like the old Annabeth."

"Well...I'm not that other Annabeth. I've changed a lot," she cast a glance at Percy and her daughter. "I wouldn't give up what I have right now for anything in the world."

Chronos put his feet back in their original position. "Ah yes, family. Very important. I won't pressure your offer, you have to make the choice. Eventually the choice will be up to your descendants as well."

"Well, that's not my life. They can choose what they want."

He winked at her. "I hope you've learned a lesson then, about the choices people make in their life."

"Oh, trust me, I've learned it very well."

Chronos vanished off the chair and time resumed to normal.

Leo got out of the pool and wrapped a towel around his waist, coming over to shake water on Piper. She smacked his chest, and he laughed and kissed her stomach gently.

Annabeth was watching him, and he looked up. "Anything wrong?" He asked.

She smiled. "No."

"Good," he waved his hand and splashed water droplets on her. "I thought you had been distracted by my hotness. I know Piper couldn't resist me," Piper kicked him half-heartedly, and he chuckled. "And now we're gonna have beautiful amazing babies, and you can be jelly of us."

"What is it with you and jelly?" Piper sighed. "I swear, he eats all the jelly from the cabinet before I get to have any."

"You should have seen Annabeth when she was pregnant," Leo grinned. "She was eating Percy out of house and home."

Annabeth chuckled and smiled to herself. "Shut up."

* * *

_And when all is said and done,_

_the ending just might be happy after all._

* * *

_The End_


End file.
